Chronicles of the Consortium

The World's Spine is the name given by the nomads of the Weeping Wastes to an enormous mountain chain that sits between them and the lands to the east. Last session, the characters cleared out a set of ruins containing a strange, glowing blue tower in a valley right on the World's Spine as it leads down to the sea. Now they are moving into the eastern lands proper. I've based most of this on a scenario included in Lawrence Whitaker's Elric !   supplement for the region. He must have come up with this to fill in some of the background for Avan Astran of Old Hrolmar, an adventurous nobleman who meets Elric at one point - there is a suggestion in the short story in which he appears that he journeyed into the East as well. Cue the characters... As the expedition emerges from the World's Spine, they traverse some low-lying woodlands before entering a rather harsh savannah environment. They continue in the same direction, partly guided by Alexia, who originally came fro...

I've been anticipating the characters' journey eastwards for a long time now, so I have a cunning plan. Basically, I want this part of the campaign to have a slightly surreal feel to it, just enough so that the players don't quite know what to expect. As adventurers from the Young Kingdoms, they should feel rather out of place, and events need to have a rather peculiar tinge - both odd and specific. I have been hanging around the net like a bad smell for a while now, soaking up various blogs with roleplaying ideas, session reports and so on, more as a way of getting myself back into things than anything else. When I stopped roleplaying due to major life moves, the internet was only just starting to take off, and I've missed a lot, some of which I'm quite pleased about, to be honest. However, there have been some developments that flashed by me completely. Just to give you some flavour, the D&D related scenarios I have from my previous roleplaying incarnation a...

This is the title of a scenario by Goodman Games: I got it from RPGNow in a sale of downloads, and used it last week for the strange tower sitting on a potential trade route between the Young Kingdoms and the east, via the Weeping Wastes. Session narrative The characters search the sarcophagus from which the second part of the Runestaff appeared, and find a previously concealed compartment. Inside is a selection of valuable gemstones and a magic ring. It bears a runic inscription composed of three elements: the runes for food, drink and permanence. Basically, the person wearing this doesn't need to eat or drink, although they can if they like. Useful in a desert environment. Sir Blanque gets this one. They also 'milk' the paralysing venom from their three docile crawling creatures into some glass vials. Yeuchh. The characters find that the rest of the tomb complex is deserted; any survivors from the bandit gang have fled via a secret passageway leading out from t...

Our weekly games group has settled down into a reasonably standard pattern with four main characters: Destiny the Melnibonean; Sir Blanque the nobleman, originally from Filkhar; Marion Shadowborn, a rogue who started life in Aflitain; and Bomilcar, the Weeping Waste warrior. I originally rolled up Bomilcar as an extra because we only started with three players; it seemed like a good way to spread potential damage. He is now being played regularly by someone else, so I can relax and just run things. There are other players who drop in and out every so often, so their characters are usually on hand as well. Preparations are completed for the great trek eastwards, which has a dual purpose: one is to set up a viable and reasonably efficient trade route; the other is for Marion to piece together the bits of a shattered magical staff she has found, which for some inexplicable reason various people they meet keep calling 'The Runestaff'. Anyway, the characters all load up with extra...

Hessaret's Treasure is a scenario for Runequest  which you can find here . It's also on the usual download sites such as RPGNow or DrivethruRPG. I find scenarios like this quite useful because they are intended for a percentile dice system, although I have to say that anything for Glorantha usually takes a bit of work to translate. This one, however, is set in a different fantasy world, so is easier to use for something like Stormbringer . The number of players in our little group fluctuates depending on who can make it, but the core remains the three run by my kids (Destiny, Marion and Sir Blanque). These are also strong enough now that I don't need to accompany them with a major NPC. Bomilcar is now being run by somebody else, but he wasn't there this time. So from now on, I'll narrate things relatively impersonally, I think... The Story Continues There is quite a bit of downtime as Jorthan steps into his final role as a representative of the Consortium of Il...

Our most recent session wasn't a long one, at least in terms of direct scenario participation. The players finished their current adventure, and then we went into logistics mode. I've therefore written this one in the third person... After the townspeople of Gorjhan realise that the Chaos cultists have fled, they burst into spontaneous celebration and mob the characters (Jorthan, Destiny, Bomilcar, Sir Blanque and Marion). On the spot, they proclaim Jorthan as senator for the town, and also vote the now desecrated Temple of Mardek as his official residence. The party lasts all night. The next day, the three characters left behind in Ilmar ride into town (Alexia, Ehlessa and Nadjana); Dyvim Slorm had contacted them separately and advised them to go and help their friends. The group has a serious strategy discussion, because Gorjhan is going to be their initial staging post for the proposed trade route to the Unknown East. When talk turns to the status of Jorthan's new re...

The Second Stormbringer   Companion  contains a multi-part scenario entitled "The Velvet Circle". It involves a Melnibonean setting the characters on the path of a couple of rare items in return for a reward that isn't all it seems. It is placed very firmly in the standard world of Moorcock's Elric. I have been intending for a while to rework some elements of it to fit into our campaign, and I finally found the opportunity to do so... Bomilcar's narrative Our strange interplanar interlude is followed by a period of relative calm and downtime. Destiny studies some more, while I just get on with my weapons practice, as do the others. After several weeks, however, Jorthan's eternally polite steward knocks to tell us that we have a visitor, an especially beautiful young woman. She is asking to speak with Destiny in particular. Let's see what this is all about. In comes another of those Demons of Desire that seem to be appearing quite a bit in our lives n...