RuneQuest / Glorantha Scenario by Jonstown Compendium /Chaosium
Durulz of Darkness
This is an adventure for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.
It is set in Sartar, starting off in Duck Point and venturing into the Upland Marsh.
** Warning ** The Upland Marsh is a place of darkness and horror – this adventure is to be considered PG13+ for content and illustration**
The adventure takes place after the Dragonrise and Starbrow’s Rebellion: the Lunar Empire has left Sartar, and the tribes and clans are restless as Argrath is on the move, revealing his great ambitions.
The year and season of the adventure is left for you to decide to best fit with your existing campaign.
The adventure can be played with the pre-generated durulz characters supplied, or you can fit it into an ongoing campaign by having the adventurers become durulz for the duration of the adventure using an enchanted artifact in the possession of the Council of Duck Point.
The adventurers being durulz means they are largely ‘invisible’ to Delecti’s undead hordes: non-durulz will face much more combat as the undead seek to slay them at every opportunity.
Check out the preview to see the contents and get a feel for what is in the adventure re: scenes and encounters.
If you want to run this adventure in one session, you may have to make some changes and cut some scenes, perhaps the traveling sections.
The adventure is written with 4-6 adventurers in mind.
It is mostly set in the Upland Marsh, so there could easily be a lot of combat. But if the adventurers are wily, they can avoid some, if not most of it. If you have more powerful adventurers, you can unleash the full fury of Delecti’s minions!
Adventurers:
You have been asked to seek out a rogue durulz who is building a ‘tribe’ in the Upland Marsh. The Council of Duck Point fear this durulz’ activity could bring down the wrath of the Necromancer Delecti on all durulz living within the marsh, ending their fragile apparent truce with the hordes of undead that roam Delecti’s domain.
The Council have asked you to find Kernal Quarz, a Humakti Sword, who has built a tribe around them consisting of many races: newtlings, trollkin, durulz, human and even rumoured to contain some undead. Perhaps Quarz has been inspired by the Kitori, or perhaps he is just insane. He needs bringing to justice, either returning to Duck Point to answer for his crimes, or having his command of the tribe terminated with extreme prejudice…
You will be given a boat, the ‘Rivereen,’ and some magical aid to find Quarz, and if necessary, to slay him.
Divination has shown that you should confront Quarz no later than a week after leaving Duck Point.
The Adventure:
Travel to sites in the marsh where Quarz has been seen, gather information and follow his trail to where he has his camp.
Meet with some durulz communities, avoid the beasts and horrors of the marsh and survive travelling through the hostile environment that is an enemy in itself.
Confront Quarz and discover what he is trying to achieve. Attempt to fulfil your mission in bringing him back or killing him, or perhaps there is another way?
The adventure is inspired by the movie, ‘Apocalypse Now’ and there is an opportunity for the gamemaster to build an atmosphere or horror into the journey and the climactic ending.
When the adventurers confront Quarz and his tribe, they will have a choice – stop Quarz or leave him be. Choices matter. So do consequences…
The Grey Sage, Gavolt Three-corners, has this to say about Quarz and the Upland Marsh:
“Word has reached us of this ‘Quarz’ and his ambitions. He is assembling a tribe within the marsh, no mean feat in itself! A mixture of cast-outs from other tribes and those that have listened to his preachings: we have heard of newtling, trollkin, durulz, humans even trolls and talk of zombies among his followers, which may be fanciful speculation. I would be more concerned with the rumour of him being ‘friends’ with a Dancer in Darkness!
He seems to be seeking nothing less than the destruction of Delecti himself… and maybe he has even greater ambition, there are whispers of Vivamort being sought… this should tell you of his mind, which I suspect slipped its moorings some time ago…
As for the Upland Marsh: if you need me to tell you to stay away, you are perhaps already foolish enough to venture in!
There may well be treasure within the marsh, there have certainly been both reports and items recovered that suggest such, but there is also death and a darkness that can invade the soul.
Delecti rules the marsh. His undead are its guardians. But there are also creatures within the bounds of the marsh that do not answer to him and yet remain enemies to all that go on two legs.
‘Seek treasure, find death,’ – an old Lismelder tribe saying I would certainly endorse.
As for the durulz, I cannot speak too much on them as I do not know enough of their nature or history. They certainly seem to have some sort of ability to travel the marsh without the attentions of the undead, but what causes this I do not know… I suspect it is more to do with them being ‘non-human’ than specifically ‘durulz,’ but as I say, I do not know enough to comment properly”
Durulz of Darkness is available through DriveThruRPG in PDF.
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Voices From The Pulpit 