Session Notes (12/08/22) - The Travels of Oli Greenback pt. 5

Game: Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha

Module: n/a

Players: 4

This was session 5 of the twice monthly runequest game I/ve been playing online.  Sorry there aren’t reports for sessions 0-4 but I’m trying to make sure I write play reports from when I am a player.  Since I was a player I think my report will naturally focus more on my character’s perspective.

Characters:

Oli, my humakti duck

Galgo, a lodrili caladralander

Sera, Ernaldan Sartarite

Mago, the storm bull sartarite

Session:

To recap everything from beforehand:

1. Sera, Galgo, and Oli played through the events of the quickstart: The Broken Tower.  We recovered most of the cattle and captured Danakos.  Idrima remains in the tower.

2. Back in Clearwine, we spoke to the events that happened, and after attending to our seasonal duties, were charged with traveling to the Shaker temple to ask the priestess how to deal with Idrima.

3. The group hired a duck boat, and plied their way past the upland marsh, and to the beast temple, where they met Mago (who joined the crew)

That evening, each of the adventurers had strange dreams.  I awoke, and traveled to the center of the Wild Temple, where I saw a feather from my deceased father.  I seemingly failed to engage with the wild temple in a suitably beastly way, and had to wander back to camp in the dark.  Thanks to a critical scan roll, I spotted one of the many gigantic spiders that call the temple home.  A hand rolled duckweed cigarette helped me get back to sleep.

The next morning, we made the decision to avoid the temple, and travel through the fey ghost woods and try to camp outside Ghosts Abound, the Dragonewt city.  On the way, we saw a massive lizard cross our path, but once inside the misty forest we Felt at ease.  So much so that Galgo began singing in such an obnoxious way that a nearby meditating tailed priest was offended.  Sera smoothed things over and we continued on.  The interaction left a sour taste in our mouths and we agreed to camp far from the city and to avoid more dragonewts.

Sera commanded a local snake to help keep watch, but we also took shifts.  Galgo got too drunk in the night and forgot to wake Mago, but I awoke and took the watch.  I saw more dragonewts before dozing off again.

In the morning we broke for the actual Dragon Pass, but were obstructed by two Dream Dragons engaged in a strange dance or ritual.  A traveling caravan led by an Issaries priest was observing them, and after a long debate about going around, we ended up watching until they finished.  We then agreed to travel on with the caravan as far as Wintertop, before continuing on to the Shaker Temple.

Player Notes:

After a handful of sessions I’m really liking runequest.  Our group has settled nicely into some great characters and we’ve had some great interactions and roleplaying as we make our travels.  Rules-wise, I was very skeptical of augments and a lot of the other “crunch” in RQ:G, but after our 5th session I think I feel much more comfortable not only with the system, but with the math and with ways to emphasize the world through those mechanics.  In particular our GM has been absolutely top notch at finding narrative meaning in each roll of the dice, and in a way that is always interesting.

At first I wasn’t so sure about my humakti duck, but I have settled into a sort of “clint eastwood, but a duck, and with a sword” vibe that I feel I can hang my hat on. I might try writing my player reports in character in the future...

the dragonewt rune, chaosium