So, more than any other adventure I’ve run so far, this one is practically unrecognizable to the original. I’m not trying to be down on the writers of this one, though. They were obviously trying to make something awesome, and its obvious that they have a deep and abiding love for the setting, otherwise they wouldn’t have put in all the little easter eggs (more on that in a moment), but, for me, its not a very effective adventure.
That said, its also fair to say its also very antithetical to my group’s playstyle. I let my group know that it was going to be a bit of a dungeon crawl and one player literally rolled her eyes at me, so it could be that I am just coming from a different place than the adventure is. I understand, conceptually, the idea of a “megadungeon” with different factions, etc, but this is super small for three whole factions (four if you count Cha’resk as separate, which I think is valid). I mean really small. The area that is supposed to encompass the entirety of one whole faction is about 40m square, and the area for another is only slightly larger. And these factions have supposedly existed in these caves for thousands of years? Really? YGMV, of course!
Add to that the whole convoluted nature of the trolls’ involvement, which is just extended fan service. Fan service, I think its important to add, for fans who probably won’t even play this adventure, as the starter set is designed for people who are totally new to Glorantha. Most people playing this will have no idea why this interesting and won’t understand any of these connections to a classic adventure, nor are they likely to play the old adventure later since the timeline has moved on, making all of those old adventures impossible to use in the new edition. EDIT: I later purchased the original Apple Lane, just to see how many links there are, and its shockingly nearly word for word. Complete with the newtling statue, oath, and war with the rock lizards. Its like nothing has changed in 10 years except White-Eye is captured and Cha’resk exists. The dead bodies are still there with the same stuff, even, including the pieces of the newtling’s statue. Anyway, enough ranting. Apologies.
Did I mention that I really had a hard time with this one?
Fixing It
Now, I’m not going to pretend that I’m a better writer than these folks. Again, I think the authors were probably very taken with the idea of revisiting a beloved classic adventure that they never stopped to ponder any of these details. It quite obvious that they have a love of the setting. That said, I did overhaul this in a major way, which the rest of this post is going to be dedicated to outlining.
First thing first, I ditched the entire troll aspect. Just cutting that helped tremendously, honestly. Instead, the rumor of the trolls is positioned as a big red herring, retaining that link to the old adventure but doing so a bit more believably. The town’s folk believe its White-Eye and his trollkin, but Rastalof knows better, because he was there when White-Eye was killed all of those years ago (Edit: I don’t actually know where this information comes from. I read over the original Apple Lane adventures and saw nothing regarding Rastalof or even a kid that could have been Rastalof, but I might have missed it as I was reading it quickly).
To tie the Blackrock clan into this I decided that Darias Earthblade, the Axemaiden on the Blackrock ring, was one of the adventurers that dealt with White-Eye when she was younger. Thus, when things start going south, Rastalof sends word to her because he trusts her, but she has responsibilities so she sends the party. It shouldn’t be hard for other GMs who want to follow my adjustments to change this to some more storied warrior in their own clan’s NPC roster.
Arriving in Apple Lane
When the heroes arrive in Apple Lane I intend for them to meet up with Rastalof pretty quickly (I actually intend for them to be led there by the messenger that brought the message to Darias). There they can find out about the rumors, and the fact that, a week before, Leika Blackspear had sent a group of warriors to help the beleaguered town, but they haven’t been heard from since. Rastalof explains that, beyond his knowledge that White-Eye is dead, the footprints the raiders have left are very clearly not those of either trolls or trollkin, but he’s never seen anything like them.
The players have a chance to investigate the most recently raided farm, check out the town, or anything else they can come up with.
- If they go to the farm they find the footprints Rastalof mentioned. A successful roll (whatever skill is appropriate for the system you are playing, Survival for DragonRune) can tell the hero that the footprints are reptilian and belong to small, light, agile creatures.
- In town they can find out that all of the dead or wounded from these raids had shallow spear wounds, while an Investigation or Healing test can reveal that the wounds were mostly on the lower body and clearly revealed multiple attackers.
Once the players are done exploring the town they can head off to the Rainbow Mounds proper.
Into the Rainbow Mounds
Once the heroes actually arrive at the Rainbow Mounds they are met with the same group of rock lizards guarding the front door. If the party explores to the right towards the Grey Cave they can find the Rock Lizard Nest as normal, however these are just natural creatures living their natural lifestyle. The players can kill them if they wish, but they only threaten the heroes if the heroes enter the next or threaten the eggs. I dropped the Great Mother Lizard, although she could be here untethered from the rest of the adventure if you want, as a demonstration of the spirit world. This rock lizard nest has existed for a very long time, so having some form of spiritual connection, unbeknownst to the normal animals living there would still be fitting for Glorantha.
The Newtlings
In the Grey Cave the heroes may catch a glimpse of lithe shapes watching from the shadows, and if they move on toward the Newtling Cave they should be greeted by a small cadre of newtling warriors. One among them speaks broken Tradespeak (rank 5 in DragonRune, or a 20 in RQ:G). I emphasized the newtlings small size and defensive posture to the players to try and encourage them to talk instead of fight, which my players did, which got them invited to speak with the newtling Elder, whom I named Ssles’tak.
The Elder told them that the clan had lived in the caves for hundreds of years, peacefully hidden from the outside world and the humans who sought to take advantage of them. They had once been a thriving colony before the trolls had come, and many of them had fled the caves back then, leaving only the small group left. The trolls had broken the idol of their god, thinking it was worth selling, but they never returned for more after taking the eye, arm, and head of the statue and otherwise left the newtlings alone.
One of their kind, Cha’resk, was the greatest of their hunters, and he would often slip out of the caves to forage for vegetation and other supplies they needed. On one such occasion a few seasons ago (around the time the scorpionmen were unleashed on Mernyr’s Landing) Cha’resk found himself affected by a wayward spell (the same chaos spell that created the karshtkid in the Mernyr’s Landing adventure) which began to twist and mutate him.
He returned to his people only to slowly grow more strange and terrible, developing a craving for meat, something unheard of to the newtlings. The newtlings tried to banish him from their nest only to have Cha’resk kill and devour many of them and their precious eggs. Now Cha’resk forces them to go and prey on the countryside to slake his inhuman desires, bringing back sheep and cows and even the occasional human for him to eat.
Ssles’tak is ashamed of his peoples responsibility for the raids and desperately wants Cha’resk gone, but the newtlings are far too weak to accomplish this on their own. If the heroes promise to help they are willing to assist, but they require the heroes to swear an oath on the remainder of the statue (see the adventure for details). They don’t trust humans, and they want assurances that they will be left alone and that the heroes will rid them of the mutated beast that was once their brethren.
The Hidden Lair
As a show of good faith, they inform the heroes that Cha’resk has taken a captive a week or so back, the sole survivor of a band of warriors that Cha’resk ambushed and killed. They can be convinced to take the heroes to the Hidden Lair to try and free him, but the newtlings are afraid of doing anything that might directly challenge Cha’resk. Newtling scouts watch for when Cha’resk leaves his lair before taking the heroes down, and the GM should roll to see if Cha’resk comes back before they can escape, especially if they take too long or steal treasure.
This is Vargas, one of Leika Blackspear’s warriors, who has been trapped for a week with little to eat and an Infected Wound (if playing DragonRune), which the heroes may need to tend to before he can be of any real use. He is willing to help the heroes defeat Cha’resk, as he wants revenge for his friends who the beast killed. Vargas and Ssles’tak can fill in some details on the map, including passages that are too small for the enormous Cha’resk to fit through. This can be useful for heroes who found the newtlings before exploring the rest of the cave system.
The Left Hand Path
Most of the rest of the Rainbow Mounds are as listed, with the exception of the trolls and troll-kin. These are replaced by newtlings who have bought more thoroughly into Cha’resk’s new way of life. They are still more likely to run than fight unless they gain the drop on the heroes or outnumber them.
What Cha’resk Wants
These alterations to the adventure require a slight alteration to Cha’resk’s motivations. In the base adventure he is becoming draconic and is only wanting to gather treasure. Instead, the Chaos-tainted Cha’resk is increasingly driven to violence, and has visions of the newtlings taking their revenge on the humans of Dragon Pass.
To this end, his raids are training for his newtling brethren to harden their spirits and forge them into warriors. His mind is clouded to the reality that this is a largely ludicrous end goal; the newtlings are not only small and weak, but they are few in number and almost entirely pacifistic. It is possible for the heroes to convince Cha’resk of the reality of this through a very hard Negotiation (if playing DragonRune), although it may be easier to convince him that there are greater allies he could seek out instead. They could, of course, also try to kill him, although this is a very tough fight. Creative use of the many chokepoints could help turn the tide (and might be an interesting place to use the chase rules if playing DragonRune).
Conclusion
No matter how they do it, the adventure is not really over until they deal with Cha’resk in some way. Either their oaths to the newtling god will force them to act or the continued devastation of the countryside will. I intend the end of this adventure to lead my group into contact with Leika Blackspear, either returning with Vargas himself or the fate of his group. I am ramping up toward the upcoming unrest in Sartar in the aftermath of the Battle of the Queens which I intend to use as a jumping off point to thrust my players into the wider realms of Sartarite politics.
In conclusion, I think the adventure as it was written was okay, but held back by its desire to connect so strongly to the old Apple Lane adventure. I definitely don’t want to dissuade folks from running the original, and it can be a good way to draw in players from more dungeon oriented fantasy games. I would have wanted something that showed the passage of time a little better, and was adjusted to fit the scope of the space we are working with, however. All of this comes with a huge helping of Your Glorantha May Vary, as well. This is how I did it and how I felt about it.
Edit: It has been brought to my attention by one of my players that I have neglected to actually tell how they finished up the adventure (it was pretty awesome). So here is the rest of the story.
Once they had rescued Vargas the group used some rune magic to heal him of his infection and geared him up the best they could. The group, Vargas, and Ssles’tak decided that the best chance they had for victory was an ambush, so Harala and Orani scouted the rest of the caves (they found the abandoned ruins of the old troll holdings especially creepy, as there were unburied trollkin skeletons lying where they had fallen). They decided the Room With Three Spikes would be perfect (even joking about how, if it were a Legend of Zelda game, they’d have to get Cha’resk to crash into the spikes three times to defeat him), since they could escape through the twisting tunnel if things turned ugly.
While Harala and Orani scouted, however, Andivarth decided to use his newfound favorite spell, speak with animals, and go try and convince the rock lizard matron to assist them. It was a tense negotiation, but Andivarth has leveled up his Influence a bit. This combined with an Exceptional Success not only got the matron’s assistance, but she sent ten(!) rock lizards to assist (I rolled 1d5 with the intention of doubling it, based on the Negotiation outcome and got a 5). It went so well that I gave Andivarth an Advancement Mark with his Harmony Rune to reflect his continuing use of (animal) diplomacy in the series.
On the way back to the group, however, Andivarth rolled an Exceptional Failure on a Perception Test and nearly blundered into Cha’resk violently interrogating the newtlings about the group (he’d found his captive missing, after all). Instead of staying to listen, he instead rushed back to the others to warn them. Given the dimensions of the caves I decided it took about 5 minutes for him to get there and relay this information.
Knowing that the proverbial jig was up, (but not thinking out the ramifications of what Cha’resk might have known now) the group decided to spring their trap. Andivarth had volunteered to be the bait, so he went to the Water Cavern to shout out a challenge. He was greeted by silence broken only by the echoes of dripping water. Back in The Room With Three Spikes I gave Harala a chance to make a Perception Contest (as she was stationed in the passageway into The Red Cavern). In a hilarious turn of events, both she and Cha’resk failed their rolls, meaning that Cha’resk wasn’t being particularly stealthy but Harala was also not being particularly attentive. Orani then proceeded to also fail her Perception. Vargas came in clutch, however, and gave out a cry of warning to Harala just before Cha’resk attacked her from behind.
See, Cha’resk had learned of their plan from the newtlings and had came to the same conclusion (I gave him an Intellect roll for it). The Room With Three Spikes was the logical place for the ambush, so he came up through The Stream Crossing to ambush the ambushers. Thankfully Harala was able to dodge out of the way, thanks to Vargas, and the party descended on Cha’resk. It was going to be a hell of a fight, but with ten (10!) rock lizards helping out in a system in which 2-to-1 odds is super deadly, Cha’resk went down before Andrivarth could even make his way through The Twisting Tunnel (which I decided was two turns with successful Athletics tests).
Cha’resk was dead and the newtlings saved. The group and Vargas swore on the newtling statue that they would keep the newtling’s existance secret and they were rewarded by the treasure that Cha’resk had hoarded in his sanctuary, which the newtlings helped bring to the surface for them.
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