[Glorantha] Genert quest

[Chris Lemens]

From: Simon Phipp <soltakss at yahoo.com>
>  Does anyone have any detail on the Desert Trackers' Quest to
> take bits of hyena skin to the Singing Oasis in the Wastes for
> it to be reunited with the growing corpse of Genert?
> . . . 
>  So, some specific questions:

Some specific answers, mostly made up:

> 1. Where is the Singing Oasis? If possible, is there a specific location rather than "In the Wastes"?

I find it interesting that the Raging Storm Area in the northern wastes in not directly over the center of the wastes.  It seems slightly to the north of it.  So what is there to guard there?

> 2. What are the obstacles encountered on the Quest?

There is no Waha trail to where Genert is.  That's why only the desert trackers try to go there.  Means you lose the protective benefit of the Waha trail magic.  So, I'd say that getting completely lost is a big one.  I'd also have the party run into the ghosts of their ancestors at least once -- I'd have them be there giving a warning that can be used to guide them to truly succeeding int he quest if they have big ambitions.

> 3. What are the opponents on the Quest?

There are some bits in Drastic Prax (I think -- maybe it was KoS) about the toothy digestators and such.  Also, I think the implication is that the sons of Genert are baaad chaos giants now; I view them as riding vaguely draconic monstrisities.

I suspect that the broos and scorpionmen and headhunters of the Tunneled Hills have rituals that they perform to keep the "protection" from the restoration of Genert.  So, if a powerful party shows up, expect a powerful chaos shaman to counter them.
 
> 4. What are the Stations of the Quest?

I think there are two versions of this quest.  The small quest is Garzeen's quest and characters can use his story as the guide.  (Of course, no one has written it, and the only references in CoP etc. make no sense to me.)  The big quest is experimental heroquesting based on a variation of the Goldentongue quest.  Since the quest is fundamentally a Goldentongue quest, many of the challenges should be about persuasion, rather than fighting; but since very few return, there should be something extremely dnagerous.  With all that in mind, here's what I would start with (all of which is my opinion, not official, not from Greg, etc.):
 
Preparation: find your way to the Singing Trees, get help from the temple there (or don't).  These are the descendants of Caarith.  They can incarnate her.  There should be clues about succeeding the small quest, but not the big one.

Cross Over: this is easy; it is a power spot.

Ancestors' Ghosts:  You meet the ancestors.  They tell you many things; you understand some.  Some are very angry; some are sad; some are wise.  It would be bad if you had previously pissed them off: payback's a bitch.  This is the transition into the Weeping Times, when there were no paths and everyone was lost.

Get Lost:  See above.  You meet the Hyena Spirit.  Even here, it is particularly insubstantial.  Don't get eaten.  Match the hyena skin you have to the Hyena Spirit's skin and the skin becomes magically charged.  This attracts attention on the hero plane, so you may have a "random" encounter any time after this.  The Hyena guides you fron here, but does not otherwise assist.
 
Strange Strangers:  There should be some stations where the current questers always fail.  Failure keeps you on the track of the small quest; success puts on you on the big one.  Each place is an empty settlement with strange, ancient architecture.  They Hyena does not guide you through the settlement, but it is simple to find the small-quest path through it.  You would need one of each of the various peoples that Genert ruled to be able to find the other paths out of them.  The failure means that the party doesn't arrive at the "time" of the resurrection -- they just get to throw their piece in from the "outside".  These stations should be inexplicable if the characters don't know why they are there, but give the narrator the opportunity to hand out goodies and clues.  If you succeeded at those points, then I think you start meeting with some really powerful opponents.  After all, who would show up to prevent the resurrection of Genert?

The Son of Genert:  There were 21 Sons of Genert, if I recall rightly, so any advice the party has gotten about the Son of Genert will be useless.  This is a real-world chaotic opponent on a counter-quest, probably with significant community support from a tribe of broos, a clan of scorpionmen, or a gathering of headhunters.  After the quest is over, add the counter-quester as an enemy.  Recall that the various entities that are Issaries or his sons are involved in a Praxian myth because of a pre-time cultural exchange where Genert swapped assistance with Issaries.  The son of Genert is still bound by the compromise to act as he did before time.  The party member acting as Goldtentongue may be able to call on pre-time obligations.  Presumably, this would have to be one of the parts of Goldentongue's story (how he came to the Garden, etc.).  The contest should be an extended one.  The chaos critter uses some horrible ability.  The sons of Genert were green/golden age
 entities corrupted by chaos, so it could be any kind of contest, not just a straight out fight.  The party should start with "Myths of Goldentongue" to convince the critter that it cannot oppose them or whatever.  If their Myths of Goldentongue sucks, then they are in trouble.  If they succeed, the baddy steps aside; some lesser victory would reveal that there was a cost to the deal -- someone has to give up something perhaps.  This could be problematic because it is voluntariluy giving something to a chaos entity.  That should probably end up on the character sheet somehow, like "Looks Suspicious to Bullmen".  A big failure kills the leader.  A lesser failure throws them out of the heroplane (but note that the Genert skin is still magically charged, which should attract quite a lot of notice, mostly hostile).

The Growing Ground:  Visually, I see the vat being in a "hollow" in the heroplane landscape; if they fail at these stations, their "path" takes them to a point overlooking the real ceremony, from which they can throw the Genert piece, but from which they cannot descend.  There is no contest to do here -- just throw it in and a nymphish critter picks it up.  You can see see others arriving from other places when it is time to go.  What do they get?  Nothing!  (Which was what they wanted to end with -- the lack of a Genert skin.)

Return home:  Chaos is vengeful.  The last fight should be after the party has "succeeded" and is on the way home.  Remember that their trail magic won't work (or, at least, not as well), so an ambush is all too likely.  This is what often kills Goldentongues.  It is usually just a fight.

> 5. Are there any useful hyperlinks to point me to any useful sites?

Not AFAIK.  Check with Ian Thomson, though.  He has some fun ideas.

> 6. In particular, has the Quest been written up by anyone, even unofficially?

I have not seen it posted anywhere.

I'd be interested to see what you come up with.  I'd be happy to help off line.