Runequest: The Battle For Trueford

The Battle For Trueford

No, dear reader, you are not mistaken. Previously I did write about the battle of Trueford when I posted the overview for the adventure, "Urvantan's Tower" in the Smoking Ruins and other Adventures book for Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. However, while discussing the post with a few people online, I realized that was more detail I wanted to give about the big battle at the end of the adventure I wanted elaborate on. I had initially expected to post this a few weeks after the first, but I've been busy with work, and it took some time to get my thoughts together.

You can find the previous post about the Urvantan's Tower by following this link here.

The Battle of Trueford - How to Run a Large-Scale Battle (Easy Mode)

In the Battle of Trueford section, it reads, "If desired, rather than delve into a round-by-round battle where every single combatant is tracked. The gamemaster is encouraged to make this fray more visceral than specific, using narrative description where possible to keep the pressure and intensity driving, and breaking combat into short, brief, and brutal encounters." 

I'm sure, like me, many GMs have never run large battle set pieces, or if they have come close to it - it was done like normal combat but with waves of combatants. Each combatant was tracked individually or in groups, and every attack and parry rolled so that the players slowly but surely played through the whole thing. We all have been there, slogging through combat round after round, and how unfun that can be. So the advice the adventure gives the GM is above and beyond the best advice an adventure can provide. As much as anyone can decide not to run the whole battle in rounds, it is one thing to decide for yourself and another to be permitted to do it. As much as Roleplaying games are a unique form of entertainment, they are a game nonetheless, and we often feel that we need to use the rules that come with the game to play the game. But if that game tells you to ignore the standard procedure and to do this other thing instead to make it easier and less stressful for the GM, all the better.

Unfortunately, the adventure doesn't give much advice on "make this fray more visceral than specific, using narrative description where possible." So that's what I hope to do with this post. Give some guidance on how to set up the battle for your game to make it easy to run and enjoyable from a gameplay perspective while still being more thematic than a slog full of moving pieces. 

I suggest that a GM breaks the battle into several manageable chunks. Some are marked as Narrative Scenes. These scenes reflect the passage of time and inform the players about significant shifts in the battle overall. The adventure gives you a few of these, so the GM won't need to create all of them out of whole cloth. 

The First narrative scene and how combat starts has a fantastic narrative description within the adventure's text. There are also two more similar scenes described in the adventure that shift the story and the battle's direction and momentum. Both of these are near the end, but the GM will need maybe one of two more similar scenes placed between the start of the battle and the end of the battle. Below I'll give you an idea of the narrative scenes I came up with for this battle.

The other chunks are actionable scenes placed between narrative scenes. These scenes use Combat Rounds but don't have to be specifically about combat actions, and I'll give examples for these scenes that I wrote up for my game down below as well. Urvantan's Tower does provide the GM with two of these actionable scenes in the adventure. In one of the actionable scenes, the heroes must get to the Town Hall and free some important NPC hostages. The second actionable scene that the adventure gives is the one that will end the battle one way or another.

Playing my RuneQuest game online had a few advantages. First and foremost, I could set up all my combat scenes beforehand. I could also have lighting effects and even animated fire, which I took full advantage of. 

Breaking Combat Down Into Chunks

When I sat down and broke the battle into groups, I listed simple phrases for each scene using bullet points to create an easy-to-follow order. The other goal I had when designing each scene was that I wanted them to be more than just combat by adding elements to the scene that gave the heroes more non-combat actions they could take. A lot more happens in a battle than just individuals fighting, especially when all the fighting is happening throughout a town. Logically, you would have non-combatants trying to escape, people who are injured and in need of help, wagons being overturned and used as cover and barriers, etc. The GM's goal is to have a broad vision of what shape the battle takes and how to reflect the passage of time. But also paring that with keeping the game from feeling like a slog.

For ease of tracking which is a narrative Scene and which is an Actionable Scene, I use Letters for Narrative Scenes and Numbers for Actionable Scenes below.

A: Urvantan appears. The battle starts.

1: Players, Save the Hostages in the Town Hall.

B: The hostages spread out to help free other villagers or pick up weapons and fight. The Local Ernalda Priestess requires the players to defend her so she can get to the earth temple. The Temple is locked.

2: Defend the Ernalda Prirestess. Find a way to unlock the earth Temple so the Priestess can get inside.

C: The Ernalda Priestess unleashes the Temple Guardian once the Temple is unlocked, and she has access to it again. the Overall battle continues.

3: a section of the town is on fire. The Heroes need to either help put out the fire, help heal the injured, or defend the firefighters, healers, and injured townsfolk. 

D: Fighting continues. Three Centaurs appear and run through the town, attacking any hero or townfolk they can reach.

4: Fight or defend against the Centaurs' attacks while villagers flee to safety.

E: The Leader of the Company of the Manticore challenges one hero to a duel; the winner takes all.

5:One Hero duels the Leader of the Company of the Manticore for control of the region.

F: Describe the end of the duel and what happens after whoever wins.  

About half my players are none combat-focused heroes, so when determining what actionable scenes I wanted to make, I wanted to ensure these heroes had moments to shine. I choose to have the next actionable scene happen outside the Earth Temple instead of during the move from the Town Hall to the Earth Temple to avoid the scene's focus being just combat-based. I felt that one gave the heroes more actions that they could take than the other. Same as why I have the heroes choose whether they help put out the fires, heal the injured or defend. 

From the image above, you can see how I set each actionable scene in Roll20 as its own battle map/stage. The images don't show the effects I added to these scenes either. For instance, Each battle map uses Dynamic Lighting so that the players can only see what is in line of sight of their Pc's token on the map. On the map with the fire, the fire was also animated, which added to the scene's tension. 

My Scenes

I'll give you a breakdown for each scene I have listed above; this way, you can either steal them or use these as a springboard to develop your own.

A) Urvantan has appeared in Trueford and starts attacking the soldiers of the Company of the Manticore. The adventure gives the GM an excellent visual description of the Sorceror's sudden appearance in the village and the hell that breaks loose from there. The only element I added to this scene that wasn't in the adventure was to narrate how the heroes and their allies rush forward to take advantage of the confusion sweeping through the soldiers. During this confusion, the heroes make their way to the Town Hall to free the hostages. This scene ends with describing what the heroes see outside the Town Hall, setting up the next scene.

1) This scene is our first round of combat once the battle has begun. You can see from the battle map above the number of enemies the heroes were to face at this stage. I used the map of Trueford from the adventure as the battle map for the Actionable Scenes. The adventure tells the GM the number of enemies stationed in the village and their deployment. The Mercenaries are a well-trained and battle-tested group who have seen better days. Their equipment needs repairs, and some of them have old wounds that are still healing. The enemy is running on fumes, making them easier to fight against than if they were fresh. I took this also to mean that none of the common - unnamed NPCs have any Rune points left, which gives the heroes an advantage over them. 

However, they are well trained, so when the players encounter the group outside the Town Hall, they are in a formation that makes them difficult to overcome. We have the classic Wall of Shields with ranged attackers from behind. The biggest and strongest target is the Minotaur, who will enter melee if the heroes can break past the shield wall. 

There is a Satyr inside the Town Hall whose job is to keep the Ernaldian High Priestess asleep. The GM can also have the Satyr come out and fight if they think the combat is too easy for the heroes. The GM can also have Urvantan appear behind the enemy if the heroes are doing poorly.

The mercenaries have controlled this town long enough to create choke points for defense throughout the village. Not shown on the map, I also have simple alarm systems strung up in crucial areas. String with bells placed low to the ground that a character might trip while sneaking if they don't notice them. Based on the size of the village and the number of villagers captured compared to the number of mercenaries in the village, I figured that the mercenaries would have ways to minimize the gaps in their watches to prevent hostages from escaping and rescuers from sneaking in at night. I love the Tenchu Stealth Assassin games; these simple devices come straight from there.

B) This scene describes the freed hostages in the town hall. If the Satyr is still around, they would probably be fine with becoming a hostage. I told how the heroes undid the bidding on the hostages that were tied up and had to find some way to wake the sleeping Ernalda High Priestess. Once awake, so she can use her power to assist in the battle, she tells the heroes to accompany her to the Temple. Along with the High Priestess is the Babeester Gor Cultist, who is the Priestess' main bodyguard. But when Heroes get to the Temple, it appears the Company of the Manticore has used magical binding to lock the temple doors. 

2) In this scene, the heroes need to defend the High Priestess while she or another hero finds a way to break the magic that keeps the Temple locked. Here we have more overturned wagons acting as defensive points for the enemy. The heroes and the Priestess at the Temple are fully exposed on three sides, making this a difficult position to defend. Most of the mercenaries have both ranged and melee options. Once the High Priestess can get inside the Temple, she can use what Rune points she has left to summon the Temple Guardian, which ends this scene and moves the battle into the next narrative scene.

C) The GM should describe the Temple Guard rushing the enemy forces, freeing the heroes from the need to defend and allowing them freedom of movement. The GM should describe the battle's progress before switching to the next actionable scene. Between Urvantan and the enemy, there are several spots throughout the town where fire has spread. One such area is also near where many of the wounded from the battle have gathered. 

3) In this scene, the heroes can help the village battle the fire, heal the wounded, and defend both groups from the onslaught of the enemy. 

When playing through this battle, I ended up skipping scene three. My players had been running low on MP and Rune Points by the time the Ernalda Priestess was able to enter the Temple. I skipped this scene and moved on to the next, blending the description of Scenes C and D. However, it's always possible the situation could be different for your group. It comes down to what kind of party of characters you have in your group. 

D) Here, we have the Centaur Leader and his honor guard rush into the battle. I figure they all have Mobility cast on themselves to get to the village as fast as possible. A hostage is carried on the Leader's hindquarters unless the heroes' previous actions have removed this possibility from the adventure.

4) Here we have the Heroes who need to defend against this sudden attack while trying to get villagers to safety. 

E) The Leader of the Company of the Manticore changes a single Heroes to duel them for the fate of the Lost Valley. Even though he is an enemy, he has honor, and this is just a job for him. Though he knows that if he loses here, this is the company's end. 

5) One Hero and the Leader of the enemy forces duel each other. The duel ended pretty quickly in our game between a Humakti and the Leader. 

Anyway, I hope you found this helpful and insightful in running the Battle of Trueford during the Urvantan's Tower adventure. Until the next time: I Fought, We Won, and May Your Glorantha Vary.

Runequest Adventure Review: Urvantan's Tower

It's been a few months since I ran Urvantan's Tower for my game group, the second adventure in the Smoking Ruins and Other Stories. The adventure takes place near the Smoking Ruins site and in the Beastlands in Lost Valley, which can be challenging to find. Most travelers are likely to trip over it when lost or never find it because they get killed or run off by wandering Chaos beasts.
The adventure overview is that the people of Long Home, in Lost Valley, have sent a messenger to Queen Lieka for help with foreign invaders. There are no alliances or ties between Long Home and the Colymar tribe, but the Queen is no fool and thinks of sending a handful of loyal Colymar tribespeople to act as her observers during the trip. 
The Queen's observers, the heroes, travel from Clearwine to the Beastlands as quickly as possible, with the messenger now acting as a guide. Though they were expecting to get there before the invading force, the party is not so fortunate and gets there many hours too late. The invading mercenary Company, made of humans and Bestmen, has successfully taken Long Home under their control and is now trying to put down the final embers of resistance.
Once the heroes reach the Lost Valley, they quickly see that they have arrived too late and that the army has already entered the valley and taken the village of True Ford. The only person who can help the lost valley and the Village of True Ford now is the Sorceror Urvantan, whose tower appears to have vanished. The heroes need to discover what happened to Urvantan while dodging the patrols of the invading mercenary Company. The heroes need to find Urvantan, a local sorcerer, and help him so that he can help save the valley. 

From here, the adventure gets into the meat of the story and has a lot of options available for the Gamemaster and players to decide how they want to proceed. The whole adventure can turn into a prolonged campaign of freedom fighters if need be or only take place over a few days. It all hangs on what choices the players make. Do they help or don't help the folk of Long Home is entirely up to the group. 
Once the adventurers have either failed and are captured or helped defeat the invading force, the adventure ends with the group's return to Clearwire. Possibly leaving further trips to Long Home open for the future if the citizens of Long Home become allied with the Colymar Tribe. 
I find running this adventure and the other adventures in the Smoking Ruins Adventure Book quite different from how GM's Adventure book is laid out and written. The main Smoking Ruins adventure and Urvantan's Tower require more work on the GM's part to run the adventure successfully compared to the GM's Adventure book's adventures. Urvantan's Tower suffers from the same layout issues that Smoking Ruins has. Information that is a bit scattered shoot throughout; Player info, GM info and advice, and other details are all mixed unhelpfully. I had difficulty keeping track of the various threads of this adventure due to layout issues in the book. I reread the adventure five times and still got parts confused and had difficulty finding information during the game. 
Around the middle of the adventure, I presented an NPC's plan to the players and completely misunderstood a sentence in the adventure, which led the players to make the wrong decisions. There is a part of Urvantan's plan where he needs the heroes to spread the enemy out in the open. The current deployment of the Company of the Manticore would make his task more difficult. Some of this is on me; I found the whole section somewhat oddly written, so I know it wasn't just me misreading the information. After reading this several times, I got it into my head that the heroes needed to get the army out of the village and spread thinly out in the open. I'm pretty sure it was that whole spread the enemy forces out into the open part that led me to portray the plan in this way. It wasn't for a few weeks until I realized my mistake when I was thinking about how all the action, in the end, happens inside the village. I kept thinking to myself. How do the heroes and villagers fight the enemy in the village if the enemy is no longer there? The enemy was drawn out of the village by the heroes. I reread the adventure for the 5th time and finally noticed what I messed up.
 It became clear that I needed to change how I made notes for these game sessions because my usual note-taking method wasn't cutting it. This one big mistake caused issues for the players and changed how the game would have played out in the end. I had to course-corrected, and everything worked out in the end. 
Yes, GMs can make mistakes. It happens. I was honest about this mistake with my players. They were having a hard time trying to find a way to make this all happen, and when I let them know that I messed up, it helped relieve some of the tension they were feeling. Also, as a bonus for my mistake, I gave them each a card from the Whimsy Deck that they could use at any time they wanted. This situation was the first time we have used the Whimsey Deck, so we'll see how it works out. But Generally, a player can play this card in a situation where it makes sense to use it to change the current story. These cards give the players more input and agency in the game. It doesn't always happen immediately either; sometimes, it sets into motion some event or person for a future situation.
As much as I had problems running this adventure, overall, it was a lot of fun, and my players had a great time with it. It did what every great Runequest adventure I have run so far does: expose your group to something new they may not know about or how it works. Until then, we hadn't done anything with sorcery, so this was a first for me to run Characters who used sorcery and the first time for my players to encounter it in combat. This adventure was also the first time my players came across anything to do with Arkat and discovered more in-game lore about the world. Most of my players haven't read the lore of the Glorantha, so being exposed to these small bite-size chunks of lore opens the world up for them.

Some notes and things to remember when running Urvantan's Tower:

• The Gamemaster should figure out how many square miles the Lost Valley covers. In Roll20, I set the Lost valley map up with a hex grid, where each hex was 1 mile, with 16 Hex crossing the map from east to west. Looking back, though, I should have made it smaller since, at one point, the enemy has to travel from the fort to the village in a short time. On my map, that was 5 miles, and I think it probably would have been better, so those two locations were more like 2 miles from each other.
• To get the best impact out of this adventure, I suggest having the heroes travel to this valley at least once before, if not more. The Gamemaster can have the Heroes defend the valley against a Talmori Wolf brothers raid. This way, the players can meet all the main NPCs beforehand, develop ties to the community, and establish relationships and history with the local NPCs. This way, when the call arrives for help, the players have those emotional stakes that Robin Law often talks about as crucial motivators for adventure. There is a lot of information about the Lost Valley and the important NPCs that the players will not get into or meet if the Urvantan's Tower adventure is the first time they have visited Long Home. I wish I had done this just so the heroes/players would understand and feel the loss of life involved with this invasion. Before the heroes arrive in the valley, about half the Village Elders die in the Company of the Manticore opening attack. The knowledge of these deaths has zero impact on the players since they don't have any pre-established history or connection with these NPCs. Hell, my players killed one of the Elders because they didn't know she was an elder in the village. They only saw a Seven Mother's Priestess with the enemy at the time. The best way is to have them visit Long Home for supplies while at the Smoking Ruins or after they finish going to the Smoking Ruins for the first time. Maybe a Merchant meets them on the road, the number of guards he has hired have been killed off or wounded by some wild beast(s), and he engages them to help get his wares the rest of the way to Long Home.

• Captain Danbar, the Warden, sent to seek the help of the Colymar, doesn't travel alone. When I ran the adventure, I had Captain Danbar travel to the lands of Colymar alone. It wasn't until later after the captain and the Heroes had entered the Lost Valley, that I noticed that the Captian was traveling with two other Wardens. Having Captain Danbar travel alone was a mistake at first, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense that he might travel independently. The Valley only has so many defenders and only so many Wardens. The number of people the village would send on this mission meant fewer defenders to protect the valley. 

• Work out the numbers before you start the adventure. I should have tracked the numbers a little better than I did at the start of running this adventure. The adventure gives you specific numbers for the number of locals to the valley and village and the mercenary Company. Keep track of them so you can readjust those numbers as characters die or are held captive. 

• The players might feel they won't be able to do much against an army. But it's essential to describe how worn-out and ill-equipped the Company of the Manticore is. Letting the players know that the Mercenaries appear to be a fighting force that is not at their best or in the best condition - that they most likely have used up their Rune Spells and may be easier to fight than a well-prepared and well-rested army would be.

• I had a lot of leftover questions about the Black Arkat. The main one that still bothers me is how the Black Arkat got into the tower. The Black Arkat didn't come through the tower's front door since the spirits on the first or second floor did not know that the Black Arkats were inside the tower. As far as they know, Urvantan is in the Tower alone, but the Black Arkat entered at least the 3rd floor because they destroyed the Guardian Spirit on that floor.

• It confused my players that the Black Arkat and the Company of the Manticore weren't linked together; it was just a coincidence that both events were happening around the same time. Though I did point out to them that they don't know how long the Black Arkat has been in the tower. According to the spirits, they hadn't seen Urvantan for weeks; the Black Arkat may have been in the tower that whole time. I think I figured that the Black Arkat had been in the tower for five days. One way that has been suggested for the Arkat to enter the tower is through the magic gateway on the fifth floor. I question this since the leader of these Black Arkat is trying to figure out how to use the chamber on the other side of the gateway. His action suggests that they didn't enter through the hero World by the gateway since they don't know how to use the room beyond it. One thought I did have about how the Black Arkat gets inside is that they know of other secret ways into the tower that Uravantan has not yet discovered in over a hundred years. After my group killed most of the Black Arkat, the leader bargained with them for his life with treasure and a promise to leave. He gave them a Serpent Staff from the old Runequest Plunder book, one he pulls from a hidden storage space in the towers. Sorcery was the only way to open the secret hidey-hole, only if you knew it was there.

• The rewards for this adventure. I used this adventure as a teaching moment in order game to remind the players that this wasn't Dungeons and Dragons. When rewarded with treasure and trade goods, the heroes should give these to their leaders (in this case, the Queen) when the heroes return home. Their leaders will reward them, though they won't receive all the treasure and trade goods. As much as the heroes should receive a reward, their actions help and benefit the community as a whole. It's the leader's duty to the community to use the wealth these heroes have brought back for the betterment of the whole group. It's an excellent way to help shift their thinking from being individualistic and more about the community.

Runequest Adventure Review: The Dragon of The Thunder Hills

The Dragon of the Thunder Hills

Overview:

The Dragon of the Thunder Hills is the last of the three main adventures in the GM's Adventure Book that comes with the GM Screen set for Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. This adventure picks up during Fertility Week of Storm Season, which is a season after the adventure; Cattle Raid. Each adventure in the GM's Adventure Book raises the stakes set by the previous adventure and expands upon what game elements and game mechanics are introduced to new players and GMs. This time, one of the players' family members (distant or close) is directly affected by the event that leads into the adventure. It's the inciting incident, as it were, to give the adventure a bit of an emotional connection for the players. 

This gets into one of the themes for Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha; the Hero's connections within the world and the people around them. As is said in the Core book, "Gloranthain myth and history are full of intense emotion, which can lead to heights of heroism and depths of tragedy. Love, Hate, Fear, Devotion, and Loyalty are often placed in terrible conflict with one another, as well as challenging personal codes of honor." Every character has a set of passions that shape who they are, what actions they will take, and what challenges they might face. Heroes can push against these or use them to further their own causes throughout the game. The GM can use them to help craft adventures to further those impassioned connections or create conflict and drama; giving players the stakes that make them feel more involved and help drive their character's decisions for good or ill. 

I really love how Passions work and think that even if you don't play Runequest, you should try to bring them into your game. I plan to go more in-depth at a later time about how Passions work and why they make for a better Alignment system for any game. But for now back to the adventure.

There are several tie-ins to this adventure with a few of the rumors and side quests that are in the GM's Adventure Book. A few of these can be introduced prior to the start of the adventure; for instance, the introduction of one hero's family members.

This adventure consists of 5 Acts; the Inciting Incident, Know thy Enemy, the Big Fight, and the Wrap-up. I break down each act below while trying to not give too much away as I highlight a few items for a GM to think about. Afterwhich, I'll list what I added or changed about this adventure that I think improved the adventure overall and helped me run it better.

Act 1 sets up the inciting incident and consists of three key scenes. Scene one starts with the Heroes traveling to Clearwine Fort for an Enarlda Holy Day. it is suggested that each player come up with a reason for why they are going to Clearwine, but the holy days can give reason enough. The scene starts with the Heroes traveling through the Nymie Vale from Apple Lane on their way to Clearwine Fort - which takes a day to travel from one to the other. While in route, the party suddenly spots or hears a Dream Dragon flying overhead, traveling from west to east. There is a series of listening and scan rolls for this and it is possible for some or all of the heroes to fail these rolls. They don't completely miss out on the existence of the dragon if they fail these rolls but are instead taken by surprise as it flies past them overhead. Its at this point the GM informs one of the players that a family member of their hero lives not far from here from the direction that the dragon came from. Fearing the worst, either through anxiety or the hands of fate, the Heroes need to check on the family member's safety, which leads into scene two. In scene two, the heroes come upon a quiet homestead where the family member of the one hero lives in the Nymie Vale. At first, there is no indication that anything has taken place until they investigate the building. Here the heroes encounter survivors of the recent dragon attack and hear their fearful story. Searching will also reveal the bodies of those who were not as fortunate. This is the moment that sets the mood and motivation for the Heroes that will help see them through to the end. The survivors help the GM set the theme of a "familiar environment that has been invaded by an outsider and the safety and peace that environments represent has been shattered". The theme of family, protection, and revenge is a strong emotional stake. A number of characters have been killed in the attack and the reason behind the attack is unclear. The survivors ask that the Heroes to send word to the Queen of what has happened and to take the children to Clearwine Fort, so that they can be kept safe. Scene three has the Heroes continue to Clearwine and inform Queen Lieka of the Colymar tribe and her council of the Dragon's attack in the Nymie Vale. the Queen's council openly speaks in front of the heroes as Queen Leika seeks their guidance. Here they'll ask the Heroes questions to help get a clear picture of the events, all while giving bits of information on what they each know about Dream Dragons to the queen. Though none of them are experts on dragons, they especially don't know much about this one in particular. It is during this that one of the Side Quests is brought up which gives the players some possible direction to go after they gather more information. This side quest involves arms and armor that could be a boon to them in the coming fight.

After speaking for a time with the Heroes and Her Council, Queen Leika sends the Heroes to Tarndisi's Grove to speak with the Dryad - to see if the dryad has any information on this dream dragon and its motives for attacking the Colymar Tribe. She believes being better informed will help them track down the dream dragon and put an end to its attacks. She also asks them to search for signs of this dragon in the Thunder Hills east of the grove, since they will be in that region anyway.

Act 2 is composed of four to five key scenes, the first scene has the heroes gather information about the Dream Dragon at the behest of Queen Lieka by seeking out Tarndisi the Dryad. Tarndisi's grove is in the forest north of Clearwine and is the home of the local elves; the Adryami. This will be the first time for new players to encounter Gloranthain Elves - which are very different from the typical Tolkien-styled elves they are used to seeing in other games/settings. The Heroes will be found and watched by the elves before being approached. Once the elves have followed and watched the heroes for a time they approach and ask them directly why they enter the elven forest. The Elves will lead the heroes to the grove to see the dryad, however, due to her history with humans, she wishes them to perform a task for her first. If they are able to hunt down Redeye the boar and bring back one of his tusks, then she will answer their questions to the best of her ability.

Scene two has a set of named elves lead the Heroes to where Redeye the boar's lair can be found. They will wait a safe distance away, leaving the rest to the Heroes. they will not offer any help or guidance but will wait to either lead them back to the grove or inform Tarndisi of their failure. From here the heroes can approach the challenge in whatever possible way they want.

Scene three has the Heroes, if they are successful, return to the grove where Tarndisi will answer whatever questions they have pertaining to the Dream Dragon in question. If the Heroes ask the right questions they will learn the name of this Dream Dragon and a possible location that they can search. From here the Heroes are lead out of the forest again, in whatever direction they wish to leave. They can search the Thunder Hills, they can return to Clearwine, or they could follow other clues and paths.

Scene four has the Heroes traveling through the Thunder Hills scanning the mountain range for signs of the Dream Dragon just like Queen Leika has asked them to do. Maybe they might even be heading to the place told to them by Tarndisi the Dryad. It's during their hunt in the Thunder Hills that another possible Sidequest found in the GM's Adventure Book is encountered. If the Heroes have not already encountered the band of Dragonewts before now, the heroes do now. The Dragonewts are seeking Heroes to perform a sacred task for them that involves the Dream Dragon in question. It's left up to the players to take the Dragonewts up on their offer. How they answer the Dragonewts can give the heroes an advantage in the coming fight.

They can also use the time between scene 3 and scene five to seek out the arms and armor that the Queen's council spoke of, which lays further north of Tarndisi's Grove.

Scene five is when the players sight the familiar shape of a dream dragon in flight in the distance. The dragon flies around for a moment before landing and the heroes can head in that direction hoping to find the Dream Dragon's Lair at or near this location. This will lead them to The Queen's Tomb and Act 3.

Act 3 is the climax of the adventure. The Heroes Encounter the Dream Dragon, Yerezum Storn. She will first try and charm the Heroes, and ask for offerings. She is very much regal in mind and body and expects to be treated like the Goddess she believes she is. Yes, this Dragon is delusional. Here is where we get into the motivation in the attacks. Yerezum Storn was awakened by the Dragonrise after being asleep for a long time (several hundred years). She found herself in the Queen's Tomb, where in the past the locals worshipped her and come to find that none have come to worship her in centuries. If the players agree to worship her and spread the news of her return, then the attacks will stop. More attacks will happen if she is not worshipped by the tribe and nearby clans in particular.

The players are offered two options here. They can either take up the worship of Yerezum Storn, reviving her ancient EWF (Empire of Wyrm Friends) cult, or they can attack her. Each has its own set of consequences that have long-running ramifications in-game.

However, if they do decide to fight Yerezum Storn and win, they break an ancient magic seal that has imprisoned the original Goddess that Yerezum Storn had believed herself to be. Which again, allows the Heroes to possibly start or reestablish a cult of their own. When the Goddess was released and appeared before the heroes, it was probably one of my group's favorite moments and really hit home the Mythic Age themes of the game. Most adventures don't give you the opportunity to start a religion.

Act 4 is the adventure wrap-up. The players return to Clearwine, if they survived, as Heroes. How the Heroes are received depends on the results, however. Obviously, it will all hinge on how they deal with Yerezu Storn. And much like the previous adventure the type of rewards they gain at the end of the adventure greatly depend on what action the players took and how they resolved the issue of the Dragon.

What I would add or change to The Dragon of The Thunder Hills adventure.

• Pre-establish the family member beforehand so that the player can establish some connection to this named NPC prior to their death. A good roleplayer can roll with a family member being dropped into play like how the adventure has it happen, but I think it will make it even more impactful for the player if they got to know this NPC before they die.
• I didn't do this with my adventure but to make it even more evident that the Heroes should check in on the homestead of the one family member, you could have them either Just left the headstead after a short visit only an hour beforehand. Or have the heroes planning to stop at the homestead on the way for a noon-day meal. 
• I had my players encounter both the Dragonewts and the Tomb of King Berevenenos a season before this adventure. Both are a great way to foreshadow the event of the Dragon of the thunder Hills, especially the Dragonewts. 
• Keep in mind when running the Dragonewts; They don't follow the same kind of logic that any of the other races follow. The way they both perceive the world and how they think are completely alien. When my players were speaking to Tarndisi, they had asked her about the Dragonewts and their reasons for seeking out human Heroes to perform the task of Liberating a Dream. She told them she didn't know because the only ones who understand why Dragonewts do anything are Dragonewts and Dragons. Even though she has been around since the Dawn she still does not understand their reasoning or actions.
• The adventure assumes that the heroes are traveling from Apple Lane. However, if this is not the case then it would be fairly;y easy to change the direction they travel and some of the elements around to fi your location. All in all the events do change much if the location of the Dragon's attack changes. 
• Remember what season it is and describe it appropriately. Storm season is snow and rain in a highland valley. I noted that none of the descriptions in the adventure really described how wet, frozen, or snow-covered anything was. As such when the heroes go to the Homestead in Act one, once they were looking around the exterior of the farm, I had them notice that the patches of snow on the ground were disturbed by a large creature of some sort. They didn't notice this from the front of the building, however, only behind the homestead and the farmland behind it. 
  Doing it this way allowed the opening scene to feel disquiet at first, with no direct sign of trouble as they approached the homestead. It was only when they began searching around the other side of the building that revealed the danger that they just missed.
• Be sure to not forget about the two children that accompany the Heroes to Clearwine Fort. The end of Act one doesn't include any directions for this, but I assumed the Queen would find a place for the children for the night in the palace until they can be placed with Kin in the city the following day. 
• There is not any clear direction on what to do while the Heroes are traveling in the forest. It's left up to the GM to decided what to do here with a few somewhat helpful hints. Personally, I had the players encounter a wild animal native to the area and the elves used this to test to see what kind of people had entered their forest. Respectful humans would know better than to hunt a creature under the canopy of the elven forest.
• When Tardisis sends the heroes to hunt Redeye, I changed up the wording a little bit for my game and had her just ask them to bring her one of Redeye's tusks. She, in no way, directly asked them to fight Redeye. I did this for a few reasons; this left the task open to interpretation but also it allowed one of the Heroes in my game who had almost beaten the giant boar and lost an arm in the fight another chance in the future to try and kill the boar themselves once their arm has fully regrown. This also makes it an interesting test of personality and cleverness if the heroes can find a way to fulfill the task while not directly getting into a fight with the semi divine Beast.
• When the heroes were taken to Redey's lair, I rolled a die to see if the Boar was awake or asleep. I also randomly rolled to determine if the players were downwind or upwind from the boar as well, giving Redeye the appropriate bonus or penalties to smell their scent.
• While the Heroes are traveling through the forest and surrounding areas, I try to make them a little more interesting to help foster role-played moments between the players, as well as add more interest to the game. So when the players had left Tarndisi's Grove and were heading out of the forest into the hills, I had a few random noncombat-specific encounters prepared for them. Noncombat-specific encounters are just encounters where the players didn't need to enter combat if they didn't want to. I also used these to help keep the tension on since they didn't know where the dragon was. So every time I had the players make listen check, they almost always were unsure if they were checking to see if it was the dragon or something else. When I use encounters like this I always stick to three or less so that it doesn't become too boring, but also to help keep the players guessing. The adventure calls for a Listen/Scan check to spot the dragon flying nearby, but I think it helps play up the tension if you make the players go through a few False alarms first before they get to this point.
• When the Heroes are searching the Thunder Hills, as they get closer to the Queen's Tomb, I had my players encounter the burned corpse of a shepherd. The goats or sheep they were herding are gone with little sign of where they went other than scorch marks, a little blood, and the vanishing cloven footprints in the snow and mud. Again, keeping the tension up, but also brought the themes of family and community back to bare. What do you do with the body of someone's kinsmen? Do you leave them or do you try to return them home. My players came back for the corpse after their battle with Yerezum Storn and sought to return the poor herdsmen back to their kin. We got some good RP out of it and it helped establish more of the setting. I also gave extra Rep for this and the person's kin did reward them with a percentage of the Herdsmen's ransom for bringing the corpse back.
• If you are new to Glorantha, reading up on the Empire of the Wyrm Friends is a great help during this adventure. Even if it's just snippets of information. The EWF comes up often and Yerezum Storn and the Queen's Tomb have ancient connections to them. The more you know the more likely you can give the players answers to some of the questions they might ask.
• The map of the Queen's Tomb has one mistake that I notice during the game. There is a set of Orlanth and Ernalda Pillars described for room five that are actually supposed to be in room 6. The Map has them depicted in room 6 (so in the correct room). Just keep an eye out for that and adjust appropriately.
• When I ran this for my players they easily took Yerezum Storn down. She never had a chance. If I was to run this again, I would give her Dispell 2 or even use Dragon Magic to dispel magical effects. My Players locked Yerezum Storn down within two rounds of combat. Starting off by hitting her with both a Demoralize and a Slow spells all while using an illusion to keep her preoccupied with the inability to use her breath weapon. 

We finished up with the main adventures in the GM's Adventure book and have just started the Smoking Ruins, so its going to be a bit of time before the next Adventure review. Already I have a long list of items I want to talk about when it comes to the Smoking Ruins adventure, so I'm looking forward to getting into that one.

Runequest Adventure Review: Cattle Raid

Cattle Raid

Art by Simon Roy

Overview:

This is the second adventure offered in the Gamemaster’s Adventure book that comes with the Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha GM screen set. The adventure happens a season after the previous adventure, Defending Apple Lane, during Dark Season. Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha isn’t like D&D where the heroes are adventuring every day as a career. Instead, usually, the heroes have about one adventure once a season. The rest of the time the characters are home taking care of their day-to-day responsibilities to the families, clan, and their occupations. Which is one of the great highlights of Runequest is how the game tries to give the players a sense of being connected to a community within the game instead of the typical freeboot experience you get in other fantasy games. Adventurer isn’t an occupation it’s just something you end up doing once in a while to help your clan and tribe. 

In my game, one of my players wanted their group to break away from the herd and try and track the Sakars. I had NPCs dissuade the heroes from following this course of action. The GM can have the NPCs can tell them that it’s been a few days since the last time the herd was attacked, there is no clear pattern to how frequently they attack, and there doesn’t seem to be a single region of the Gejay Hills that the Sakars seem to keep to, as far as they have been able to discover. Also, have them point out that the Herdsmen would rather have them protect the Cattle as they move the herd than for them to wander into the hills hoping to come across tracks that may or may not lead them to the Sakar’s den. To the Herdsmen’, the plan to wander the hills in the hope of discovering the Sakars seems like a flawed plan and that the heroes would be better served by following the target of the beasts’ attack; the Cattle.

A GM can also have the players make Battle Check if need be to see if their plan is a good one.

This could also be a good point to call for A Loyalty (tribe or Queen Leika) or Devotion (Orlanth) check to follow any plan that left the tribe’s sacred cattle in possible danger.

This might feel like railroading, but I’m not saying that the players can’t follow this course of action, but the GM knows what will happen the next day whether the PCs are there or not. In my opinion, this will result in the worst outcome if the PCs wander off into the hills to track down the Sakars on their own.

No matter the outcome of the previous adventure, the heroes can be called before Queen of the Colymar Tribe, Queen Leika Black Spear, and be given the simple task of helping a few herdsmen who are protecting some of the tribe’s sacred cattle. This is a good opportunity for the player characters to first meet and interact with many of the major figures within the tribe. These NPCs are all covered in the GM’s Adventure book with full stats and minor detail for each character’s background so the GM can run these NPCs to the best of their ability with little work on their own part. 

This adventure is another great start to help introduce the setting and gameplay to new players and involves a staple of the Gloranthan adventuring: Cattle. From what I have been told, the Cattle Raid is to Runequest what Dungeons are to D&D. Though this adventure is not a cattle raid, per se. Passions also play an important part within this adventure, particularly with one of the main NPCs that the heroes meet and who acts as their guide. This NPC’s passions can force the players’ hand at a pinnacle point where the players need to decide the best way to handle a potentially volatile situation. If they don’t recognize the hazard this character represents or even share those same passions, the results can raise the stakes for everyone and have dire consequences. 

This adventure breaks down into three acts and can take a single session to get through - two if you stretch the roleplaying out a little. The adventure takes place during Dark Season but could be inserted between any two adventures that a GM has planned. I believe the reason for the adventure to happen during Dark Season is due to the sacred cattle being moved into lower pastures in preparation for Storm Season, but this could be easily adjusted for any other time of year, imho. 

Art by Kalin Kadiev

Act 1 starts with Queen Leika inviting the heroes to Clearwine Fort to dine with her. Here the PCs will be able to meet the Queen and her council, as well as any of the other local important figures in the tribe. During the meal, Queen Leika will ask/command the heroes to accompany a Varmandi Herder back to the Gejay Hills to meet up with the rest of the Herdsmen. Recently, the tribe’s cattle, sacred to Orlanth, have been attacked by Sakars - which are Sabertooth Cats. The young herder who was sent to the Queen with the request for help from his clan will have answers to some of the players’ questions. But the players will be able to get more information on the situation once they reach the other Herdsmen. The heroes’ task is simple. Follow the Herdsmen, and if and when the Sakar attack, defend the herd, and kill the monsters that have been menacing the cattle for last season or so. 

Act 2 picks up the next morning, after their feast with Queen Leika, it will take about a day - day and a half for the Heroes to travel from Clearwine to get to where the Herd is currently grazing in the Gejay Hills of the Varmandi Clan lands. During this time the heroes interact with the NPC herdsmen, Heortarl, who is acting as their guiding. This character is in love with the idea of being a warrior and going on adventures and gaining renown from being victorious in battle. Any warrior within the party will find a new friend/follower in this Herdsmen, whether they want it or not. They will also discover through Heortarl’s own expressed passion about the Orleving Clan of the Malani Tribe, which expands the player’s knowledge about the world and how the various clans and tribes work together; and how they don’t work together. Heortarl has a short write-up that gives the GM a window into who this NPC is and how best to run them; which I really appreciate. Overall, though, the players will probably feel that their guide is annoying and will be happy to meet up with the other herdsmen so that they can get this job done and not have to be around this youth for too much longer. 

After traveling for a day - day and a half, the players meet up with the herdsmen in the Gejay Hills. There are short write-ups and stats for each herdsman, as well as what answers they might have for the heroes’ questions about the herd, the Sakars, and the Orleving. Once the group links up with the other Varmandi, the heroes will follow the group as they herd the cattle into lower pastures. It is during this time that the Sakar attack and the players get to do their job. However, this causes the herd to panic and stampede in several directions. Once the combat with the Sakar is done the players will help a group of herdsmen to round up some of the cattle.

Art by Simon Roy

Act 3, the players help track down a group of 50 cattle that got away from the herd during the Sakar attack. This leads the group into direct confrontation with the Orleving Clan, who try to take the lost cattle as their own, with a lot of posturing and threats. This scene is left mostly open so the players can choose how best to handle the situation. The adventure gives the GM advice and suggestions on the various avenues that the players might try to use to resolve the conflict. The adventure has short write-ups for the main members of the Orleving Clan members they confront and what their motivations and current plans are for dealing with the Herdsmen and heroes. Much like the other adventures, how the players handle the situation and resolve it will have different effects on the rewards and consequences they will receive at the end of the adventure. Many of which, can lead to more adventures and role-playing opportunities down the road. However, the various passions can force the situation into one avenue or another, depending on how the dice roll.

Once this situation is resolved, hopefully, the Sakars are dead, otherwise, the players will have to remain out in the Gejay Hills until they find the beasts again and deal with them. From here the heroes will return to the Varmandi Clan seat, Oakton, and speak with the Clan Chief to inform him about what happened with the Sakars and the events involving the Orleving. The adventure gives the GM guidance on what kind of reception the heroes receive from the Clan Chief depending on what happened during the adventure. With luck, they might be greatly rewarded and gain a new friend and ally. At worst, they will gain enemies. 

This adventure is very straightforward, much like the previous adventure, and is a great guide to how Runequest differs from other fantasy games. There are two divine laws that the Orlanthi follow, handed down by Orlanth and Ernalda (god/goddess). The First is, “Violence is always an option” and the second is, “There is always another way”. This adventure places the heroes into a situation where these two laws are presented as tangible options for the players to play with. I only wish the adventure presented these laws within the text of the adventure. There wasn’t a lot that I changed or added to this scenario, but below I will offer the little advice and suggestions I have on running this adventure. The adventure does a great job of providing a lot of GM advice and suggestions already, so there is very little that I can add to it.

What I would add or change to the Cattle Raid adventure.

• When the heroes go before the Queen of the Colymar tribe, I gave the players time to interact with all the main NPCs. I used the Random Rumors table in the back of the GM’s Adventure book to spark conversation between the NPCs and PCs. However, for as many NPCs can be in this scene, The GM doesn’t need all of them fully conversing with the Heroes. Nameless will probably say very little as an example. Don’t feel the need to play every character in this scene.
• The Adventure has Heortarl brought out towards the end of the diner with Queen Leika. When I ran this, I didn’t see any reason for him to be excluded from the diner and just had Heortarl sitting quietly near the end of the long table, trying not to embarrass himself. He’ll stand out amongst this group of important people due to his mannerisms and cloth, but I didn’t see why he wouldn’t have been asked to join them as well. I just kept him quiet until the Queen motions towards him.
• The GM can use the NPCs during the diner scene or before you transition to Act 2, to introduce or remind the PCs about the two laws handed down by Orlanth and Ernalda; “Violence is always an option” and, “There is always another way”. Just a bit of foreshadowing and a way to plant that seed into the player’s mind before they encounter the Orleving.
• My players were able to stop over in Apple Lane as their halfway point and spend the night there before continuing on into the Gejay Hills. They were using Apple Lane as their home base because of the resolution of the previous adventure. This allowed them to gather their supplies on the way and not have to spend the night outside before getting to the Gejay Hills.
• When the players meet up with the Herdsmen, I gave them time to role play with the Varmandi clan members. I had it late in the second day when they linked up with the herd and the herdsmen were setting up camp for the night. This will also give the players the time to ask the NPCs more questions about the situations and possibly plan.
• One or two of the herdsmen will get hurt in the stampede. The players might want to stop and help with healing but one of the Herdsmen will already be there casting healing spirit magic on their companions and would rather have the heroes help the other herdsmen gather the cattle that fled in the hills. I had two players stay behind even after this and so maybe plan accordingly.
• It would be a good idea to remind the PCs that it’s better to get a ransom for defeated enemies than to kill them when the Orleving encounter happens. Ransom is particularly unique to Runequest, whereas in many other games you generally just kill anyone you end up fighting.
• One of the things I would add to this the next time I run this adventure would be to include one or two short local Varmandi stories that the herdsmen can tell around the campfire at night. This would give the player more in-game knowledge about the world they are playing in and possibly act as a springboard for further adventures. I didn’t do this the first time because, much like my players, I’m new to the setting. But after the session was over, I felt that this would be a worthwhile pursuit. 

The Wrap-up.

Next time I will hold off on the review of the third and final adventure in the GM’s Adventure book. Instead, I’ll want to talk about in-between adventures and how tI have been running them, and how Runequest does this differently than other games. This will also include the side quests and some of the seeds I planted that foreshadowed the events of the next Adventure: The Dragon of the Thunder Hills. My hope is to have the next post up within the next two weeks.

Side Note:

I had Heortarl show up about a season later seeking to apprentice with our one Warrior - having received permission to so from his Clan Chief after annoying Korol Serpent-tooth about it ever since the players completed their task. My player did decide to train the NPC. I think they decided this because they knew deep down that at some point the NPC was going to start a fight he couldn’t finish or survive and felt the need to at least prepare him for the trouble the kid wants to brew between himself and a rival clan.

Runequest Adventure Review: Defending Apple Lane

 Last year I made the long-awaited switch from playing D&D 5e for the last 3-4 years to the newest version of Runequest from Chaosium. Most of my game group haven't played anything other than 5e and for some of them, this was their first time playing a campaign in a non-D&D world. For me, D&D is one of the games I like the least, and have always found better games to play. I really enjoyed 5e when we first started to play it but after year 3 of playing I was burned out on this game system and all of its flaws. I should have ended the game before I did because now I hate everything about it. But let's not go down that road. Let's get into my new hotness; Runequest.

I have never played Runequest until now and only recently heard about the setting of Glorantha, but I have quickly fallen in love with this highly detailed mythic, bronze age world of heroes. I have to say I'm loving Runequest; Skill-based game systems are my favorite and Runequest meets the level of game design I enjoy without being too crunchy in my opinion. When I first started to hear about this game I picked up the free pdf of the quickstarter, which can be found on Chaosium's site. The quickstarter is a good look at the rules of the game and what you can expect from a game of Runequest. The Adventure isn't too bad either but I haven't run it yet. Once I got into it and was preparing to change my game over to Runequest once we finished our D&D campaign, I used some birthday money and bought the full Slipcase set for Runequest that comes with the Core book, Bestiary, and the GM screen - this set is not required to play the game but was something that I just wanted since I already was going to buy all of those books and the GM screen anyway. Plus the slipcase is pretty cool.

The GM Screen Pack is 100% worth getting. Maps, character sheets, calendar, pre-gen Characters, and best of all The GM Adventure Book. This book is what I think is currently the best way to start a new campaign of Runequest. Gives you a detailed starting setting with the Colymar tribal lands and brings back a classic starting town (or Hamlet in this case) with an updated Apple Lane. The book comes with 3 adventures, a dozen explorable locations that can turn into their own adventures by themselves, dozens of NPCs with full stats,100 random rumors (some true, false, up to the Gm, and a little bit of both), and a few other worthwhile extras. Truly the best GM screen I have ever seen and/or bought.

Defending Apple Lane

Overview:

Defending Apple Lane is the first adventure in the GM adventure book. It takes place right after the major event that kicks off this edition's timeline (yep, there is an active storyline for the setting). This adventure takes place a few weeks after the Dragonrise and the PC are traveling through the area when the people who live in the hamlet of Apple Lane ask for their assistance. Apple Lane is on major trade routes and it is not uncommon for travelers heading home from one of the numerous battles that took place recently to pass through the hamlet. A man who survived a brutal raid has found his way to the hamlet and remained conscious enough to warn Apple Lane that a raiding party of Tusk Riders is preparing to attack the hamlet. Apple Lane currently has no defenders to protect them, so when the PCs appear they are asked to help defend the hamlet from the Tusk Riders - and the villagers will reward them for their help.

This adventure is a good start to any campaign and for any group learning Runequest. The adventure primarily combat scenes with some roleplaying moments that bookend the adventure, where the PCs interact with the NPCs, particularly when they are planning the defense of the hamlet.

Overall this adventure can be broken down into 3-4 acts. Act 1, which I described above, where the PCs arrive and are asked to help defend the hamlet from monstrous raiders. This gives the players a lot of power in how to defend the Hamlet, with the NPCs taking a backseat and assisting the players where they can since all but two of the NPCs have any kind of combat training. The adventure offers a series of answers to possible questions the players may ask the NPCs and this information can help the players during their planning. The adventure leaves up how much time the players have to plan and prepare before the Tusk Riders arrive. 

Act 2 starts when the Tusk Riders attack. The adventure gives you a lot of suggestions on what kind of tactics the Tusk Riders will use to attack the hamlet. They are mostly seasoned warriors who have a lot of experience attacking similar settlements. The adventure gives you some short workable background and context for each Tusk Rider so that the GM can make the best decisions as the encounter progresses. There is a clear and defined hierarchy within the raiding party's group, which can easily fracture into 2-3 factions depending on what happens as they encounter the PCs. The adventure reinforces that none of the characters want to die in this fight. So play them smart. If they are losing, they should flee to the best of their ability. The Tusk Riders have a big advantage in this fight since they are all riding Tuskers, which are giant battle-trained boars. The boars have their own attacks and give the Tusk Riders a greater range of movement. 

The number of Tusk Riders is adjustable based on the number of players and the adventure gives the GM a clear idea of how many enemies the players should encounter for this adventure. When I ran this adventure, I used nearly all of them. Each tusk Rider has a name and a level of power, none of them are what I would call minions/ redshirts/clones to be used as cannon fodder like you see in many other adventure games. When comparing the number of players to the number of Tusk Riders they should encounter in combat, the adventure tells you which ones to include in the raid based on the PC's party size. 

How this combat session resolves and what situation the Tusk Riders encounter when they attack really depends on the PCs earlier planning. The Tin Inn is the only location in the hamlet that is easy to defend. The inn has an inner courtyard surrounded by a wall with a gate. There are also two temples in the Hamlet, but they only have stout doors that can be barred shut but offer no other way for defenders to respond to any attacks.

Act 3, in my game, a number of the tusk riders were killed in the fight before the others fled. One PC was nearly killed, but in the middle of battle, the healer was able to rush over and save them while the Heavy Infantry Warrior defended them from being attacked again. So my act 3 was the players healing themselves and checking on the villagers while searching the fallen Tusk Riders. The group's Assistant Shaman and his Master detected something odd about the one Tusk Riders necklace of Human Hands, and with second sight saw that there were two human spirits enslaved and bound to the necklace. This gave the Assistant shaman a moment in the spotlight and allowed him to learn about his occupation in the game. With some guidance, he was able to free the enslaved spirits and set them to rest. 

Once they were all done and ready, they set out to hunt down the rest of the Tusk Riders who fleed. This required them to go into the Colymar Wilds but is not a difficult task for anyone with the tracking skill to do. the Giant boars they ride make an easy path to follow, destroying vegetation as they rampage through the hills and forests. 

The Colymar Wilds can be a dangerous place. In these mountains are two known monsters or beasts that most people try to avoid if at all possible. Both are detailed more elsewhere in the GM's Adventure book, but the players can possibly encounter one of these while tracking the Tusk Riders back to their camp. Redeye the Boar is a semi Divine Beast that leaves a path of destruction where ever it goes and is a creature of rage and hate. This is suggested as a possible encounter in this adventure, but if the PCs beat the Tusk Riders fairly easily and the number of Tusk Riders left is too few for a good fight, then bring this guy into play. This creature is stated elsewhere in the adventure book and is one of the many possible side adventures that the players can investigate and encounter at any time. So don't feel the need to include him in this adventure. He can show up at any time and one of the other adventures in the GM's Adventure book will give you another opportunity to have the PCs encounter Redeye.

Once the players have this final encounter with these Tusk Riders, they can then return to Apple Lane as heroes.

Act 4 (or Act 3 is all the Tusk Riders are killed in act 2), the PCs are rewarded by the villager elders, Depending on what the PCs did during the adventure and how impressed the villagers are by the PCs' ability to defend the hamlet, the PCs can gain additional rewards that are more significant than just gold and silver. These kinds of rewards create a link to the community and help launch further adventures. This is one of the many aspects that I really enjoy about Runequest, each adventure has its standard rewards as well as potentially more rewards depending on PCs actions, Player Decisions, who lives or survives, and How the PCs go about resolving the objective(s) of the adventure. It's very much a decision tree done as a reward structure; much of which is not monetary based. Also every adventure you go on, the higher your reputation becomes, making you someone that others can seek out based on what stories they heard about you. Your reputation can affect social encounters, changing how an NPC interacts with you depending on the kind of reputation you have; if they have heard of you.

In an effort to not spoil too much, I'll say that due to my player's actions one of them, for his bravery and Honorable actions, was given the title of Thane of Apple Lane. Because of this, the character was able to hire his friends as retainers and cemented the group's roles in the community. Some players might see gaining responsibility as a somewhat undesirable reward, but in Runequest - Community and the PCs duty to their community and family is one of the many aspects of play. Runequest isn't D&D and this is one of the ways that the game reflects the differences between the two. It's not about Dungeon Crawls and fighting monsters, win treasure, and wandering the lands doing whatever. Don't get me wrong, if this is what you want to do for your game then it is still very much possible. However, in Runequest, your aspiring heroes go on adventures maybe once a season, and the rest of the time they are handling the responsibilities and duties that come with their chosen occupation; local healer, local Priestess, warrior working as village protector, assistant Shaman, etc. 

This adventure is simple and straightforward. Perfect for easing into a new campaign and easing into the Runequest Rules for the first time. Plus, it allows these players to save the starter town that they can then become fixtures in and around this quaint little hamlet. If nothing else, it introduces the players to the Temple of Uleria, the Goddess of Love, whose temple is a local hot spring and bathhouse enjoyed by travelers looking for a good place to rest for a night.

What I would add or change to Defend Apple Lane adventure.

• Set a timer: The PCs and the villagers don't know when the Tusk Riders will appear. When I ran this session, I rolled a D10 to see how many hours they had to prepare for the attack. Make it very clear to the players, when they are planning their defense, that they don't know when the attack is coming. I use the NPCs to poke at the plans the players were coming up with and several of their plans never took into account the amount of time they probably didn't have. 
  For instance, the players were talking about chopping down trees to block the roads. But they didn't really have the time to do this and it probably wouldn't have done much to stop the Raiders (especially since in my game, the Tusk Riders weren't using the roads). The NPCs didn't like the idea of the Players destroying parts of the groves in an effort that may not have born any fruit.
• I would have the PCs present when Saraskos, the man who survived the Tusk Rider's raid on his home, arrives to give the warning. This allows the PCs the chance to be present went the warning is given. The original adventure has everything begin a time after Saraskos has already given his warning.
• Have it so that Saraskos had a family who the Tusk Riders killed during the raid of his homestead. This adds some weight to the raid. 
• The biggest potential downside to this adventure is the number of NPCs the GM has to manage. When the players are interacting with the Apple Lane residences, the GM should just have Brightflower and Aleenia be the only ones speaking to the players, even though the Apple Lane gives you stats for all the main personalities in the hamlet.
• There is a lot of repetition to the names - especially the names of the various woman in town. So you are not constantly going back and forth, write down all the main names and a note for each and maybe even prescribe a well-known actor or actress that you can easily picture as a quick character description. This will help break up all those similar names in the player's mind.
• Have some of the PCs help bring the locals to the Tin Inn or the Temple. There are 13 characters listed in the village under the detailing of Apple Lane; 14, if you count the one child that is mentioned here. There are something like 25 hides of land around Apple Lane, which are managed by tenet farmers, however, there are only 5 (14 people) sets of tenet farmers listed at the end of the adventure. I assumed that there are more Tenet families in the surrounding area and would say that there is a family or 3 or more per Hide of land. So I would say there are at least 20 other families (not listed in the book) out there that the players can help gather for their safety. 
• Come up with a plan of attack for the Tusk Riders. The adventure book as suggestions that can help in this but I used the map and decided early on what direction the attackers were all coming from. I did this before the players started planning their defense. 
• Make it clear that the main objective here is to protect the people in the hamlet, not property or other items in the hamlet. I feel like this was something that wasn't as clearly stated in the adventure and the impression my players had was that they needed to protect the recent surplus from the harvest. This forced the players to try and spread themselves out in order to protect more of the hamlet. 
• Have Hendroste the Horsemaster protect the stables. This just seems logical to me that the Horsemaster would be the type to want to protect his horses, his livelihood. He does have a family and I had them at the Inn since it was the best defendable location, but then had Hendroste on the roof of the stables ready to shot any Raider that came within a reasonable range of his bow. This also allows him to act as a lookout to the south side of the hamlet.
• When the Tusk Riders flee; it possible the players will try to call this task complete. Have the NPCs say that they will not pay the PCs until they feel the task is complete since with a number of Tusk Riders still out there, they could return at a later day. The task the player took up was to protect the hamlet from These Tusk Riders and as such, they will not feel safe until they can be reassured that the Tusk Riders will not return. Generally, you want them to hunt the Tusk Riders down and either finish them or run them off - make them think twice before trying this again. I used my one player's Honor against him since he had an Honor of 90%. But you could have other players make similar dice rolls, such as opposed rolls Between Loyalty Clan or Tribe and one other Passion. or just a Loyalty roll if they want to call the task complete. 
• As the Player travel into the Colymar wilds, have the players come across an area that was recently (within a day or two) destroyed by Redeye in its wandering. Trees uprooted, knocked down, tufts of fur, gouged earth, crushed rocks, and a few dead animals should give them a good idea that might be out there.
• The adventure does have all the answers. This is pretty normal, but when reading through the adventure, I would suggest thinking about any of the questions you would ask as a player and come up with possible answers. 

My plan is to write up a similar overview and notable changes or possible changes for each of the Adventures in the GM Adventure book. So Keep an eye out for that.