Trouble at Day's Rest PAX Online Play Report

A PAX Online one shot - Trouble at Day's Rest for Runequest Roleplaying in Glorantha by Chaosium.

...Here Be Spoilers...

Prax, 1625

Vishi Dunn's dreams have been disturbed by the spirit of his father’s wayward brother Vaneed calling for his help. The spirit claims to have a long-abandoned daughter, Meanna, at Day's Rest, and that trouble is coming to her and her family.

Day's Rest, Prax

These visits have left Vishi deeply concerned. He has pressed his allies to detour from their planned journey across Prax so that he can seek out his uncle’s daughter and help resolve whatever problems present themselves, settling his uncle’s spirit.

After two uneventful days, they have arrived at the oasis on the morning of Wildday, just in time for the weekly market. Vishi Dunn’s companions - Varsana, her sister Yanioth and Natham join Vishi in a mission into the lands of Prax in order to investigate.

Vishi has also upset the High Llama Riders clan, further complicating matters, we nervously talk to the merchants, including a strange troll merchant selling Black Elf Beer (Varsana and Yanioth turn their noses up at this) and a merchant from the homelands of the Colymar tribe, the final group of merchants, slave traders are in the process of packing.  So, having found the location of Meanna and her husband Hafir, Hafir is a fixer/go-between for the various merchants and traders, the group head to their house.

We discover Hafir is missing, along with his bodyguard, thanks to Cousin Monkey (Vishi's companion - an intelligent if cowardly baboon) we enter Hafir's locked storeroom and find a list that linked his disappearance to the slaver merchants, we also find another name Nafin, who was Hafir's right-hand man when it came to his business.

Heading back to the market we find he slavers gone, we decide to seek guidance from the priestess at the shrine across from the oasis, whilst there, Vasana implores the priestess to help and she reveals Nafin is hiding, scared of what the slavers may do to him.  Questioning Nafin we find out that Hafir and his bodyguard have been kidnapped, part of a deal with the Morokanth (a tapir-like race who use unsentient humans for their work).

Morokanth and unsentient human slave

Thanks to the tracking skills of Natham, we trail the slavers to a Morokanth camp, too many to take on for the four of us, Varsana and Yanioth go to a nearby High Llama camp, challenged to a duel to prove their worth, Varsana unseats her opponent with her lance, honour is satisfied.  After food and drink, a group of High Llama accompany the two back to the Morokanth camp - there is no love for the Morokanth with this tribe.

Meanwhile, Vishi and Natham have scouted the camp and come up with a plan, Vishi will sneak into the camp, free the slaves, grab a horse and lead the Morokanth away from the camp whilst the rest of the group gather the slaves and lead them to safety... they plan to rendevous back at the High Llama camp.

Unfortunately, Vishi is spotted freeing the slaves and a Morokanth with enchanted steel claws brings him to the ground, Varsana mounts her bison and charges into the fray, from a distance, the others cast arrows and spells, taking down one Morokanth and befuddling another.

Vishi manages to heal himself, grab a horse and flee the camp, with the Morokanth close behind.  

Varsana charges into the enemy group initially gaining the upper hand, but the claws of the Morokanth are deadly and she nearly succumbs to a deep wound, Orlanth must have been looking down though, two Morkoanth had trapped her and were about to deal a series of fatal blows when they fumble, one tripping over itself and landing in the dust.

Varsana, Daughter of Farnan

Vishi has now seen the danger Varsana is in, he wheels around and charges back to help his friend, a vital blow skewers the Morokanth on the ground, the force of the blow lifting it and carrying it dying and wailing from the battle.  Arrows rain down on the other Morokanth, as it too collapses, mortally wounded, to the floor, the remaining befuddled Morokanth in the camp turn tail and flee. 

The group gather to see to the slaves, Hafir thanks them for the brave rescue as they divide the Morokanth goods and begin the journey back to Day's Rest, thanking the gods for what could have been a very different outcome.

Notes: A really fun one-shot from PAX Online, it was played using Foundry VTT and discord which worked very well, the GM had handcrafted a lot of the Runequest mods, but there were some high-quality maps and only a little tweaking to combat/skills.  By rights, Varsana should have met her end, only two fumbles in a row from the Morokanth saved her plus Vishi's bravery in coming back to help and scoring a crit!  This shows what I love about Runequest, combat is deadly and if the odds are stacked against you, most likely you are not going to make it, so brains, as well as brawn, are important.  I did plan to have Varsana sneak in and attack the Morokanth from behind whilst they were busy with Vishi, but the GM, quite rightly, reminded me what a highly honourable person Varsana was, she would never have left Vishi in so much trouble.  It was a high-risk plan and we almost paid with our lives!!