From: Harry the Dirty Dog (s861022@minyos.xx.rmit.OZ.AU)
Date: Fri 01 May 1992 - 09:56:33 EEST
The Trollkin Chaos Cult
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Written by Philipp Grawe (Harry the Dirty Dog) s861022@minyos.xx.rmit.oz
This is a short Scenario Hook that I came up with in an Advanced Computer
Architecture lecture. Something to keep players occupied when nothing is
happening. Perhaps they meet the Cult while staying in a village that gets
attacked, perhaps something important is stolen by a Trollkin, perhaps a
smaller sized character is asked to join the Cult. The Cult will attack
anywhere and anything. There is a writeup on Feral Trollkin in the Troll
Realms book (a short one put out a couple of years ago containing a couple
of modules, the rules for Troll Ball and so on. It's 3rd edition).
MYTHOS AND HISTORY.
A starving Feral Trollkin, injured and weak found a pool of Chaos Ooze,
Primal Chaos Muck, near the Foulblood Woods in Southern Dragon Pass.
It drank from the pool in desperation, not realizing the pit's true nature and
received wonderous powers...it now walked upright and tall, possessed
strength beyond the dreaming of other Trollkin, it had a vision, a mission...
it was to be a Prophet of the New Age...the Age of Trollkin, when the
downtrodden rise up against the larger races and take their rightful place at
the Forefront of Society.
It would begin a cult. It would gather worshippers for the Unknown God,
raise an army which it would lead to conquer the world in the name of the
only God in history that had smiled down upon a Trollkin.
That was two weeks ago. By now the membership of the Cult is around
40-50.
CULT BELIEFS.
The Cult believes that it's eventual destiny is to overthrow the Troll
race and rule in their place. They are hostile to anything that doesn't
look like a Trollkin.
Their only Holy site is the Pool, where they worship every New Moon, the
first Trollkin having received it's calling on a New Moon. They have very
little concept of the outside world, apart from what they have seen while
scavenging from others, or what some have seen in the Troll towns and
villages.
THE CULT IN THE WORLD.
The Cult is based in the southern edge of the Troll woods, near the
Foulblood Woods in Dragon Pass.
They often go on raids, generally taking a number of days, but always
returning to the Chaos Pool on the New Moon. They raid anyone and everyone.
Small groups camping are prone to attack, especially those with riding
animals (remember one horse can feed a Trollkin for a week). Settlements are
often raided, especially those with sheep or cattle. Smaller Villages have
been completely overrun, with only bones left.
A hungry Trollkin will eat anything including people, other Trollkin,
animals, leather, bone, wood, people, mud, sand, grass.
INITIATE MEMBERSHIP.
The cult has very little concept of Initiate membership. You are either
the Leader, or you are a follower. A new member must drink of the God's
Blood, (ie drink from the Chaos Muck in the pool) in order to receive the
vision and the Gift of the God (one or more Chaos Features), and prove his
worth by going on a mission (somehow obtaining enough food to feed the rest
of them). Failure to complete any of these means being sacrificed to the
God (being pushed into the pool to be eaten by a Gorp at the bottom.)
A bad chaos feature, such as an extra arm, or a major loss in statistics
with no other gains or being turned into a broo is considered to be failure.
PRIESTHOOD.
There is no priesthood. The leader is simply the strongest Trollkin. At
the moment this is still the founder.
GENERAL NOTES.
The Chaos Pool
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The pool is one of those places in Glorantha where Primal Chaos has struck
through to the world. It is not a big pool, being little more than a meter
or two in diameter. At the murky bottom lives a Gorp which feeds on the
creatures, plants, and things that fall (or are pushed) into the pool.
In game terms drinking from the pool gives 1d4 Chaos Features, with a 50%
chance of receiving a reverse chaos feature (the Curse of Thed).
The reason I thought up this cult is that it is one of the few in
Glorantha that doesn't actually worship anything. It is based around a
naive little Trollkin that saw what it considered to be a miracle, something
totally inexplicable and formed a logical belief around it, a belief which
is unfortunately completely untrue. Remember that the whole writeup is
basically from a Trollkin point of view, a view which is very limited and
inexperienced.
What's really sad is that a band of Storm Bulls would take these guys out
without blinking, and without them ever knowing what they'd done wrong.
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