Brave New World
I’m abbreviating the following titles: Mongoose’s RuneQuest II Core Rulebook as RQ and Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords as ToB.
Player Handout II
Here is the second half of the player handout I sent my players. As a side note, Keal Gseo is a warblade I ran through one adventure in a friend’s Ptolus campaign. I imported him directly (his mini is an old Warhammer Quest priest with a maul, shaved head, and holding a tome—the Tome of Battle of course). He proves the rule: never throw anything you design away, you can always reuse it at some point.
All villagers, even children, are armed and trained in fighting using the Sublime Way. Survival skills, especially hunting and trapping, are vital to learn. Education is important as well, with everyone taught to read and given a basic understanding of the culture of Man and common magic. But this education is only a stopgap, a desperate attempt to arrest the long slide into darkness and barbarism.
Those who are too old to fight take the Long Walk, a ramble into the frozen north with no return. The exception to the Long Walk is anyone with a child-like mind. Children and adults unable to mentally fend for themselves are cared for by the village or are given a swift death if the village is about to be overrun and destroyed.
Children and those who are child-like are not to suffer whenever it can be prevented. Needless to say, anyone found harming a child will be put to death immediately unless they can quickly defend and justify their action.
Your Adventurer will not last long if he or she doesn’t cultivate relationships with fellow villagers. Protect your village and your Adventurer will have food in times of peace and force in numbers in time of war. As villagers die, the village weakens. If enough villagers fall, a critical balance will tip and the village itself will die, another ghost town haunted by what ifs and could have beens in the hell of the frozen north.
What follows are some of the more influential villagers. Your Adventurer might be related to one of these villagers. Or you might be friends or betrothed to a child of one of the older villagers. You may simply be apprenticed to one of the experts. Or you may simply know them by reputation alone.
Tsuro is run by a council of three chiefs:
Keal Gseo of Iron Heart is an old warblade who guards the Kamate Grimiore. He is also a blacksmith. His wife died years ago and his has not remarried. Some of his grown children have moved to other villages. He is favors boldness over timidity, action over reaction.
Shaved head, white beard, rubs a wounded left arm, carries a warhammer. His beads are wearing away as are his buckskins. Quote: “The only wrong choice is to not make a choice.”
Weeja of Devoted Spirit is a powerful crusader who refuses offers of marriage. She once killed a man for touching her shoulder without leave. Many believe only a runepriest or rune lord of her cult could gain her hand. She is a healer. She favors using overwhelming force and swift justice over taking halfway measures or allowing the possibility of Chaos creeping in.
Flaming red hair unbraided, dark eyes, gestures a lot. No jewelry just knives.
Quote: “If you are innocent, you have nothing to fear. If you are guilty, you will soon be nothing.”
Tanara of Desert Wind is a swordsage with great understanding of the disease spirits of Summerland. She thinks carefully before speaking or acting. She is a hunter. She is a balance to Keal’s bold rashness and Weeja’s zeal. Her husband is Haku, a powerful warrior. They have children still in the village.
Raven black hair, tanned skin, red sash bordered with red fox fur, pauses while talking.
Quote: “Learn. Consider. Decide. Act.”
Quan is a young hunter, recently initiated as an adult, with a jagged scar across his face from where a mountain lion mauled him. He wears its skin now. He is arrogant and prideful but puts the village before himself. He hunts with his lifelong friends Reng, powerfully built like a bear, and Hin, with the litheness and cunning of a wolf. He hates Luc (see below) with a passion because Luc killed Quan’s brother, Quay.
Ankim is a carpenter who very much favors returning to Anbegriffon and restoring the empire. While many experienced hunters believe him mad, those villagers who face starvation each winter are listening to him more and more.
Sanna is an apprentice healer who desires to leave the ancient empire behind forever and forge a new society in the north. She wants the villages to band together and forge a new empire. While she appears hopelessly naïve to many, some suspect that she is quite practical and willing to back a bloody emperor willing to carve his way into ruling the north.
Luc is an older hunter who believes that exploration of the world will lead Man into a new golden age. He believes Man should return to farming and town building. He advocates opening negotiations with dwarves and elves and claims even to have made peaceful contact with a Grendel. Most villagers fear him and believe he will bring doom down on the village someday. Luc has survived one attempt on his life already; he was forced to kill Quay, Quan’s brother, who ambushed him and tried to murder him.
Swords and Cults
Here are the nine main cults of the Sublime Way and the swords associated with each.
- Desert Wind: Inferno, a rapier
- Devoted Spirit: Avenger, a falchion
- Diamond Mind: Razor, a war sword
- Iron Heart: Kamate, a longsword
- Setting Sun: Eventide, a short sword
- Shadow Hand: Umbral, a dirk
- Stone Dragon: Unfettered, a great sword
- Tiger Claw: Fang, a scimitar
- White Raven: Lastblade, a saber.
House Rules
Most PCs are human with a culture of barbarian. Dwarves and elves are rare and feared; see the GM if you want to play one (I haven’t made the rules up yet for these races. Dwarves are likely civilized and run coliseums for the amusement of their people. Elves are probably nomadic spiritualists with necromancy being a problem).
Characteristics are determined by Random Roll, Arranged, Re-roll any result of 6 or less. You may take up to 2 points from one ability and move it to another except for SIZ or INT and final scores must be between 3 and 18.
Lore (Regional) is Lore (Quyhn) which is the river valley surrounding Tsuro.
Witches (males are warlocks) practice only Sorcery and are keepers of the lore of the world before Summerland invaded. Witches are afforded much respect.
The basic combat styles in RQ are available. In addition, each blade cult has its own style that offers many more weapons for the cost of only one skill. See Additional Combat Styles below.
Common Magic is not freely available, so Professions don’t start with free spells just a basic understanding of runes and spells as a common skill. For every ten points you spend on Common Magic, you learn two magnitudes worth of spells.
The cults in the RuneQuest II Core Rulebook are not options in Kruvil. Refer to the Sample Cults of the Sublime Way detailed starting next month.
Additional Combat Styles
This option fits perfectly with each of the nine sword ways. I changed the weapons around from those listed in ToB. Desert Wind for example uses swift weapons while Stone Dragon uses heavy-duty attacks.
- Desert Wind (longsword and main gauche, halberd, rapier and poniard, trident and shield, unarmed)
- Devoted Spirit (ball and chain and shield, battleaxe and shield, falchion and shield, poleaxe, unarmed)
- Diamond Mind (ball & chain and dirk, great axe, trident and net, war sword and shield, unarmed)
- Iron Heart (halberd, longsword and main gauche, military flail, military pick and shield, unarmed)
- Setting Sun (ball and chain and shield, morningstar and shield, shortspear and shield, short sword and dirk, unarmed)
- Shadow Hand (dagger and dagger, dirk and buckler, garrotte, quarterstaff, unarmed)
- Stone Dragon (great axe, great club, great hammer, great sword, unarmed)
- Tiger Claw (scimitar and main gauche, military flail, poleaxe, trident and shield, unarmed)
- White Raven (sabre and main gauche, lance and shield, longspear, mace and shield, unarmed).
Map 2: Continent of Kreadoes
The map this month is of the continent of Kreadoes. Kreadoes lies in the northeast corner of Kruvil and has suffered many recent upheavals.
The runes of Earth and Plant are particularly strong on Kreadoes and the rune of Chaos is rising as well. Dwarves are a strong union of the runes of Man and Earth while elves combine Man and Plant. And Chaos combines with other runes and corrupts the life that springs out of them.
Next Month
The Desert Wind cult for followers of the nine swords. How real life beliefs can lead to more enjoyable storytelling. And another map, this time an outline of the main continents of the world of Kruvil.
Do not go quietly,
Charlie
