Five years ago, the Colymar tribe mustered under the leadership of King Kallai Rockbuster and joined King Hofstaring Treeleaper of the Culbrea tribe, Queen Kallyr Starbrow of the Kheldon tribe, and the Urox cult in armed rebellion against the Lunar Governor of Dragon Pass, General Euglyptus the Fat. King Kallai is a rich and mighty king and joined the rebellion reluctantly, but ultimately agreed to fight the Lunars rather than allow them to desecrate the Hill of Orlanth Victorious.

Almost exactly five years ago Asborn Twiceborn a famous Wind Voice (Priest) of Orlanth convenes a clan moot and speaks in favour of the clan and the tribe supporting the newly formed High Council of Sartar. He speaks eloquently and passionately of the need to, in particular support Starbrow, an actual descendant of Sartar! Many in the clan support him including Kortar Gordangarson, son of the chief and his younger brothers, Rosgradus and Brolakar, It looks like the clan will muster in full when the chief rises to speak. He talks of his admiration for the kings and his support for Queen Kallyr, but then he talks of the might of the Lunar empire, what happened when the empire invaded in 1602. He’s actually being booed by sections of the clan moot! Then he drops the clinching argument

“What if the Bat comes?”

(https://kanka.io/en/campaign/39663/characters/337424)

This is greeted by a deathly silence. The older attendees nod, look horrified or just stare at the floor, the younger hot-headed men are cowed into silence by their elders and the moot breaks up. In effect anyone who volunteers can go and join the Kings but the clan will remain officially neutral and uninvolved.

That night the chief’s stead is rocked by a blazing row between the chief and his sons. He forbids the younger two from going but Kortar eventually storms out in a rage taking his armour and weapons and riding off into the night with a few friends. The younger sons retire to their rooms and sulk for days.

What did you do:

Harmast – too young to go but...?

Iskalla - ?

Mica – too young to go but...?

Ulf - ?

In reply to dashing (msg # 1):

Mica was but a girl when the Starbrow Rebellion broke. She stayed in the woods and tended the Geese which had only just been entrusted to her.

She remembers one day dancing in the woods when she was disturbed by a commotion.  She hid and snuck, fearful, towards the noise.  A man came staggering into the woods.  He was sorely hurt, bleeding from multiple wounds that had been sustained days before by the looks of them.

The man collapsed and Mica crept closer.  He was an archer: though his quiver held only three arrows.  He was wounded in several places - the worst a deep cut to the stomach that was seeping stinking pus.  How he had managed to travel this far was a minor miracle.

He saw her watching him, but was too far gone even to cry for help.  She crept forward, drew out her water pouch, and used it to clean his wound.  Then she cradled his head in her lap, dripping water into his mouth until he died.

She buried him in the woods and told no-one.

[Private to dashing: This is how she got her bow]

Maybe this could tie into the time that Ulf actually went and had to be saved by one of his brothers who was killed. I was thinking he'd have been a bit younger but this could work... He doesn't talk about what he saw or the circumstances that led to his brother's death, suffice to say it wasn't glorious...

I like where this is going.

What's your brother's name? Any other details I should be aware of?

In reply to dashing (msg # 1):

Harmast watched them ride away with wistful eyes, and then went to his room and sulked, and dreamt of being the hero in the battle, and using his sword to kill a giant bat.

In reply to dashing (msg # 1):

and seriously -- the Crimson bat?  8-)

[Yep, basically this is the RPG of the board game which gave rise to that saying of Mike's. Sadly the bat is pretty much the most terrifying thing you can meet in this game. Well not counting the greater gods but their hands are somewhat tied].

Sulking is good.

Beating the Bat would be better but sadly that is not happening until you are a lot more tooled up than you are right now. It's basically a chaos god that is otuside of the Great Compromise (aka Time) and so can pretty much do whatever it wants inside the world (which most gods can't). It is so terrifying people go mad just through having seen it, Morganeth Whiteye (https://kanka.io/en/campaign/39663/characters/269238) [and my bad she's the clan's priestess so I take back what I said earlier about needing to get one] went blind on encountering the Bat and most people would account that a good outcome. The town of Runegate was destroyed the last time the Bat visited.

Oh and I forgot to say that's Mike's issue with the Crimson Bat is that the nob on the other side of the board failed to tell him all the relevant rules regarding its operation. I think I have told you. It's not the Bat's fault it is sometimes controlled by a nob...

[Sorry I somehow missed this. I like this, very poetic etc. there's the issue that the bulk of the fighting took place some way away so this is going to happen sometime afterwards during the Lunar reprisals. Actually there's a slight better way to do this. In the aftermath of the rebellion (which I’ll get to in a couple of posts) the lunars and the rebels decided they needed a scapegoat and picked on the Durulz. A “Duck Hunt” was organised with a bounty on the head of each duck brought in. Would Mica be interested in having the dying archer be a duck? I appreciate all the humour etc. sent Ducks’ way in Glorantha but that makes the racial overtones rather more touching IMHO. Up to you].

[So only Ulf and his brother went off from the sounds of it?]

On a rainy day in Sea Season, King Kallai marches the Colymar army into the lands of the Culbrea, near the village of Greenhaft. The Colymar army hides in ambush, and the heroes watch as a Lunar column more than a mile long begins the process of crossing the rain-swollen Lorthing river. Dara Happan hoplites of the Beryl Phalanx are joined by Tarshite mercenaries, Pentan horsemen, and  Lunar priestesses. The rain becomes torrential and balls of lightning terrify the soldiers and their animals.

Then came a roaring and rushing from upriver: a great wave of water crashed into the column as it sought to cross the river. Horns blow; King Kallai and his kinsman Kangharl Kagradusson lead the Colymar against the disorganized Lunar soldiers. They are joined by the Kheldon tribe, led by their Vingan queen; on the other side of the river, the Culbrea attack those Lunars who managed to cross the river. This is not a battle – it is a massacre. For the Lunars, the battle is a complete disaster as the core of the Lunar Army in Sartar is shattered beyond repair.

After plundering the defeated Lunars – horses, food, supplies, equipment, silver - the Army of the High Council of Sartar marches on Boldhome and retakes Sartar’s city. Sartar is proclaimed free and Queen Kallyr Starbrow reveals her lineage proving she is an heir of the Royal House of Sartar. Sartar is again free! Soon after, the Colymar warriors return to their clans, leaving the kings and priests to argue about when Queen Kallyr will relight the Flame of Sartar. The warriors come home to be greeted as heroes. It's fair to say that tensions within the chief's hall are very high indeed!

Ulf and bro? any actions during this? I note this covers a lot of territory so you can assume some familiarity with it and can request a roll using Heortling keyword to know anything about any of the places mentioned here.

Meanwhile back at the tula life proceeds apace. Looking back you will realise how much better everything was at that time, the oppression of the Lunars since that time has drained wealth and to an extent life out of the clan.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:06, Thu 14 Jan 2021.

In reply to dashing (msg # 10):

As Mica reached the man, he turned his head - and she was confronted with the face of a giant duck!

She did not even blink. Instead, she knelt and took his head in her arms, dribbling water into his beak as she crooned soothing words of 'GooseSpeak' in his ear.

It did not take him long to die - he was already too far gone.  But he died knowing that somebody cared, regardless of his race.  And she hoped that though she did not know his dialect, he died hearing someone telling him that it would be alright and she would sing him a path to the AfterWorld in a language close to his own.

Beautiful!

[Private to Mica the Goose Dancer: Ducks (durulz they call themselves) are actually part of the Kingdom of Sartar and speak Sartarite and worship (more or less) the same gods. Sartar himself brought them into his kingdom. That does not stop them being despised.]

In Fire Season, General Fazzur Wideread of Tarsh arrives in Alda-Chur with a new Lunar Army and takes command. His first published directive is ordering the execution of General Euglyptus for his mishandling of the rebellion. The Sartar High Council once again sends out emissaries to the tribes. Once again, King Kallai reluctantly musters the Colymar tribe for war.

There is another heated debate in the Orlmarth clan and once again it is decided to “sit this one out”. all of Harmast's brothers decide to go to war and leave with Asborn.

What do Ulf, his brother and Iskalla do this time?

In reply to dashing (msg # 11):

Ulf, young and keen and in his first real battle, rushes forward at the first sound of the horn, ignoring the urging of his brother Gorm to be careful. Whilst he is there to witness the great tide of the river as it crashed through the column and to meet the disorganised lunar army, it has put him closer to the rushing tide of water.

Initially, the few that have managed to cross are disorganised and demoralised and even Ulf manages to dispatch a few of them with ease. Confidence growing, he continues to march in, calling out for challenge from anyone. Eventually, he turns to see a great bear of a man barreling down on him. He is reduced to fending of blows from the man's great axe just to survive but gets closer and closer to the torrent.

Eventually, the lunar soldier is struck from behind through the guts and topples forward dieing. Unfortunately, the battle has taken its toll and Ulf is too slow to move. The man careers into him and takes them both into the river.

Ulf's memory fails him somewhat from this point - he remembers a desperate struggle for survival as he got washed downstream - under again, a quick breath then under, as the weight of the man pins him. Rushing, flowing, water in his ears, nose, mouth, everywhere. Sometimes at night he wakes up with the sensation that he's drowning again.

Then suddenly his brother Gorm is lifting him away from the dead soldier and supporting him as they make it back to shore. He puts him on to the bank and then gets up himself. Standing over him, he says, whilst laughing 'well, little brother, maybe next time you'll be a bit more care...'. Gorm doesn't finish the sentence as the thrown spear goes straight through him and he falls back down into the river, dead immediately.

Ulf can do nothing else except pass out - shock, exhaustion and fear have got the better of him. When he comes too then he'll need to go home and tell his family and who knows what will happen then...
This message was last edited by the player at 15:23, Sat 16 Jan 2021.

In reply to dashing (msg # 14):

Ulf is disgraced at this point, due to causing the death of his brother at the battle of Hofstaring's flood. However, he would most likely trail the army at a distance and see if he could help out in anyway with his new skills as a scout - poison enemy supplies, spy and report to anyone who would actually talk to him, etc.

That brother's dead so he does nothing ;)

The others will have marched to war as Harmast's brothers went and are all family.

Well he could have died now rather than during the previous battle, now might make more sense as the Colymar are about to be embarrased in a battle (well some of them anyway).

In reply to dashing (msg # 17):

Ah, I see. I'll keep my story as I posted it though, so Ulf is trailing along behind on the latest excursion.

OK, people die stupidly in war all the time and someone has to make up the casualty lists even in a victory. OK, Ulf snatches defeat from  the jaws of victory with calamitous knock on effects on his family.

[Secret to Ulf Skommson: Would you like to have a think about what happened to the rest of Ulf's family as obviously by five year's hence they are all gone.]

The army of Sartar musters at Larnste’s Table, a stone table sacred to Orlanth and the powers of Movement, but fewer than expected arrive. Worse yet, despite the Sartarites having the support of the god of Motion, Fazzur Wideread and the Lunar Army is still faster! The Lunar Provincial Army crosses the Creek at Dangerford without opposition and assembles near Jonstown before the Sartar army is even fully mustered. The army of Fazzur clearly outnumbers the Sartarites and places Jonstown under siege.

Each day, the Lunars form up and offer battle to the Sartar army on Larnste’s Table. Each day, the Sartarite kings debate and decide to refuse to come down from the stone plateau. The Lunars begin constructing lines of circumvallation (fortifications encircling Larnste’s Table) and prevent the Sartarites from slipping away. The Sartarites appear doomed, as more and more Lunar soldiers arrive, blocking off every avenue of retreat.

King Hofstaring and the Uroxing berserks advocate a mad charge of the Lunar line – if we are to die, at least we shall die with sword in hand! Queen Starbrow refuses such glorious suicide, but has no better plan. Morale sinks as the realization that the army of Sartar will end up dead on the  battlefield or in chains as slaves of the Empire.

I think only Ulf is present and he's hanging around the outskirts of camp avoiding anyone he knows. What does he think of the situation? Does he agree with King Hofstaring or the Queen? How is he going to get out of this, or does he welcome death? What about slavery to the empire?

In reply to dashing (msg # 20):

For Ulf, this is one of the examples where he learns his somewhat anti-Orlanthi principle of 'discretion is the better part of valour'. Whilst he does yearn for glory, he also has a very high instinct for self-preservation and agrees with the Queen that to die for nothing is pointless.

He is opposed to being enslaved at all costs and would definitely prefer death to that but, with no apparent way to win and no end in sight, as an individual, he's able to sneak out one night and make his way back to the clan territory. Only dishonour for him but at least no one noticed him leave in the first place...

In reply to dashing (msg # 19):

Yes, ok - from the sound of how this one is going to end, the majority of his remaining brothers could have been killed or enslaved at this point and then his parent's, with little incentive to carry on or joy left in their life would've succumbed to disease soon after.

I just need to decide on whose killed and whose enslaved based on the ending.

You'd be surprised: bushwhacking and running away to lead into ambushes are time honoured traditions as is “live to fight another day”.

Still I think you are right: Ulf has this more than most!

Oddly he’s probably going to come out of this alright compared with many. Let’s see how it goes.

Finally, on Fire Day of Illusion Week, heralds come from General Fazzur, their safety guaranteed by Issaries. The heralds bring news that another heir of the Royal House of Sartar, Temertain the Librarian, has arrived in Boldhome. General Fazzur summons the Sartarite kings to meet with him on neutral ground. There Fazzur reveals that he has agreed to a treaty proposed by Temertain’s advisor Redbird and that he will pardon those Sartarites that accept the treaty. King Hofstaring refuses and tries to escape, but Fazzur’s Lunar demons capture him and condemn him to suffer eternally in Lunar Hell. The other Sartarite kings – King Kallai and Queen Kallyr – agree to exile.

The Sartarite army disbands and returns to their farms and herds.

If Ulf had still been here then he'd have had to swear the oath to uphold the lunar peace so he dodges that one at least.

Aftermath

More people come home afterwards than probably deserved to, but most have their spirits broken and have had to swear to uphold the Lunar peace. The exception is Ulf’s brother cut down earlier and some others such as Harmast’s older brother Kortar killed during a skirmish. His other brothers have sworn the oath and slink home to face their father’s wrath, however, they nurse an abiding hatred for the empire which could lead them to be oathbreakers…

Meanwhile the Lunars announce that the rebellion is all the fault of the Durulz and levy a bounty of a year's freedom from taxes for each duck corpse brought in. Nobody amongst the Orlmarth is interested in pursuing the ducks who have been good trading partners to the clan and moreover too many members know the truth. However, adventurers and desperados of various sorts pass through the clan lands looking to get rich quick bringing home a duck or two. Mica’s scene happens during this time. The ducks flee into the Upland Marsh or further afield.

The Duck Hunt lasts a year before lapsing. Taxes are higher than ever although the Orlmarth can meet them better than some neighbouring clans.