Runequest Glorantha Adventure by Jonstown Compendium / Chaosium
The Shimmering Lake is an adventure for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.
It is written to fit into an existing campaign.
It could run as a stand-alone single session game, or lead to a few sessions of play depending on the needs of the gamemaster.
It also contains suggestions for running heroquests: how to structure them and some rules mechanics, as well as three heroquests detailed ready to play.
(There is a lot of stuff in here about heroquests, though the core adventure need not involve one…)
The Shimmering Lake is a mysterious phenomenon, appearing apparently at random in Glorantha through the ages.
Investigating the lake can lead you to the depths of God Time, or simply bring you into contact with those by its shores.
The lake can be a spiritual experience, leading to revelations, or the jumping off point for a heroquest, or a series of encounters with folks who are surrounding it.
Use it for what you need as a game.
The Grey Sage, Gavolt Three-corners, has this to say about the lake:
“What is the lake?
Only a fool would claim to know.
It is a Middle World remnant of the Lightbringers Quest. A piece of honey-soaked parchment to hang in the kitchen window in summer. A ripple from Zzabur’s Great Blast that sunk the empire of the Vadeli. It is the eyes of the Underworld. It is a prize from the great fight they fought so we could win. It is Arkat showing the way. A story to bring dreams to life from the minds of children. A trace of the fractured Erasanchula, reflecting their lost truths. It is a perfect moment from the vision of Ginna Jar. It is death to those who seek it and life to those who would throw it away. It is an impossible part of the Everywhen. It is a mad dog chasing birds into a forest. An opening of the way back.
What is the Lake?
Only a fool can ever know.”
Three heroquests are detailed as adventures so the gamemaster can explore the world of Glorantha’s myth and legend:
Grandmother Spider
Indrodar’s Queen
The Celestial River
All the author’s earnings from sales of the Shimmering Lake will go towards the art budget for the next JC release, ‘The Whispering Flowers of Lorthing Vale’.
(At the moment the ‘art budget’ consists of a Jim Dunlop 0.7mm plectrum, a parking ticket receipt, some strange looking grey fluff, a 1963 three-penny bit and a half-eaten packet of chocolate digestives…)
So, you can happily buy The Shimmering Lake safe in the knowledge that you will be helping produce further adventures in Glorantha! Hussar!
A snippet from the ‘about the lake’ section:
What has been revealed to some that have used the lake to travel to whens and wheres that now only exist in myth, is that the lake was created from the tears of Larnste. Larnste the Shaper, the Lord of Change, the Soul Arranger.
Through the God Wars and beyond, through to the ending of the Lightbringers’ Quest, Larnste wept for the disappearance of Ginna Jar.
The lake follows Larnste’s desire to bring her back to the Celestial Court.
The lake is a beacon, a doorway and a calling to the mysterious Ghost of Glorantha.
Larnste’s wistful mourning cares nothing for time or space and does not recognise the boundaries of either. Thus, the lake can go where it will, forever dancing on the edge of the void, manifesting in an attempt to draw the energy of Ginna Jar back to the Celestial Court.
What has been revealed to others, is that the lake is merely a form of God Learners Map, a result of the great sorceries of the Reconstructionalist Movement, the ultimate result of the Zistor Experiment in the Second Age.
The lake is simply a manifestation of the Monomyth, physical and mystical, tied to the mythologies of Glorantha, but made to be used by humans to better understand them.
The lake moves from location to location, time to time, to avoid the retribution of the cults, who view it as a heinous crime against the beauty and the mystery of their beliefs.
(Pfft! God Learners!)
The Shimmering Lake is available through DriveThruRPG in PDF.
Please note: The links in the post above are “affiliate links”. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item the author of this post will receive an affiliate commission.
Voices From The Pulpit 