Plot Outline
Lhankor Mhy is the God of Knowledge, Learning, and Lore. And
the Great Temple of Knowledge in Nochet City, Esrolia, is the truly the
greatest temple of Lhankor Mhy in Glorantha. Every year, young apprentices
sit exams, hoping to qualify as sages (initiates) of Lhankor Mhy.
This adventure takes a group of apprentice sages through their examinations,
including the rigorous Sage Acceptability Test, the perilous Field
Trip and, finally, the tongue-tying Oral.
Adventure Sequence
Character Generation Introductions All Round Master's Little Pep-talk Sage Acceptability Test Anias Entrance to the Underground Archives Encounters in the Archives Kiva and his Guardian, Vixen The Mad Head Ghosts Retrieving the Ex Files Anias Checks the Facts The Oral Exam Graduation
1.
Character Generation
Each player must fill out one of the special Getting
of Wisdom MGF-Character Sheets, creating their own apprentice sage.
In general, apprentice sages at the Nochet Great Temple of Knowledge tend to be young, human males - however, exceptions are not uncommon, and characters can be practically of any race, sex or creed. The challenge then is to invent a plausible reason why they would be a lowly apprentice sage!
If everyone's in the right mood, character generation can almost be as much fun as the scenario that follows!
Note: Once developed, it is important that you have a thorough read of each character, especially the 5 things no-one knows about me stuff. It makes good MGF to work this material into the plot as it progresses:
2.
Introductions all round
Once created, each player introduces their character to the group,
highlighting such aspects as the 5 things everyone knows about me,
who their master is, and what research interests they are pursuing.
While the 5 things no one knows about me stuff should be kept secret,
other aspects might be well known, eg. "I keep everyone awake at night
reading in bed with my Light spell (until I pass out from lack of Magic
Points!)", or "my favourite possession is my turnip of a rude and
unusual shape - I carry it wherever I go". On the other hand,
if a character's fave spell is Tap POW or his fave possession is
a Thanatar head, they might want to keep it quiet at this stage!
3.
Master's Little Pep-talk
Academic life at the Great Temple of Knowledge is very competitive,
and each master wants their apprentice to succeed because it reflects well
on them. Likewise, failure makes them look bad! Each master
will in their own way give their protege a little �pep-talk�, letting them
know that they hope and expect their charge will come away with the coveted
award of Dux - highest in the grade that year. Most threaten
various punishments and penalties if they are disappointed, eg. "I'll
have you scraping sheep carcasses for vellum till Storm Season!"
4.
Sage Acceptability Test
The candidates now must undergo the Test of Holiness.
Now, everyone knows that the test is a 'doddle' all it involves is staying
up all night in the scriptorium, fasting and saying prayers to Lhankor
Mhy; all you have to do is make sure you don't fall asleep! The following
morning there's always a big slap-up feast, with the best spring lamb (used
to make vellum).
Unfortunately for the candidates, the temple has a new Invigilator, fresh out from the Sun Dome - Dr Marv Monrogh (professed topic of interest: "A healthy head means a happy temple"; real interest: messing with people's brains).
Dr Monrogh explains that he has replaced the old traditional test of holiness with a new one of his own devise: the Sage Acceptability Test (SAT test). All you have to do is answer a few simple questions (get the players to write their answers on a piece of paper).
Dr Monrogh's method has him ask a series of questions, but the answers
given really respond to whole different set of questions. Only at
the end does he reveal this. Get each player to read out their answers!
The Sage Acceptability Test
(SAT)
Question #1
Really asking:
Question #2
Really asking:
Question #3
Really asking:
|
Dr Monrogh collects the SAT tests, and goes through the real questions
with the now startled group. After this, he tells them that they
are ready for the next stage of their examination: the field trip.
He directs them to go see the Deputy Chief Librarian Anias for their assignment.
He asks that they give the SAT test answers to Anias.
5. Anias
The group visit the deputy chief librarian Anias (professed
interest: "Prax in the Golden Age"; real interest: succeeding the doddering
senile old fool whose currently high priest) to receive their field
trip assignment. Anias is in his vast study, and sits at a huge oaken
desk, piled high with rare and dusty scrolls, tomes and manuscripts.
Anias looks down at the group as if they are lowly pond scum, and gives them their assignment. Their 'field trip' is actually going to be a expedition through the temple's underground archives, to retrieve a collection of documents Anias is need of: in the golden age of Prax there was once a city called Ex, which was squashed flat when the Storm Bull called upon the Block to crush the Devil. Divinations have proven the existence of the Ex Files, and now Anias wants the group to find them for him.
Before anyone can ask questions, Anias dismisses them peremptorily, and tells them to go see the sage on duty at the entrance to the underground archives. This sage will give them a bookworm which will guide them to the correct part of the archives.
Note: If anyone gives Anias the SAT test answers, he read them
through, and asks lots of potentially embarrassing and awkward questions.
Fortunately, he doesn't understand Dr Monrogh's methods and doesn't know
what the questions really are (though the players don't know this!)
6.
Entrance to the Underground Archives
The sage on duty at the entrance to the vast underground repository
is Columbus Mercator (professed and real topic of interest:
proving Glorantha is round, not flat). Columbus is looking for
crew for his planned circumnavigation of the 'globe', and to get the bookworm,
the players will have to humour him and his crackpot theory (remember things
the PCs say here, because Columbus will be on the panel for the Oral Exams
at the end!)
The bookworm is actually a temple spirit, bound into a leather
chit (a library card, of sorts). It will guide the group in the most
direct way to the documents they are searching for. Columbus gives
it to the apprentice who panders to him the most.
7.
Encounters in the Archives
The Underground Archives are an endless maze of tunnels, galleries,
cubby holes, nooks, rooms, chambers and halls, all stacked to the brim
with scrolls, books, papers, artifacts and objects, all classified, tagged
or labelled in one way or another (and often several ways by sages with
different methods for ordering things), but in reality one big hopeless,
confused mess. The temple is actually waiting for a cult HeroQuester
to come along one day to sort it all out, a sort of Super-Hero Harrek the
Librarian-type. Meanwhile, things continue to get stacked down there,
using whatever cataloguing method is in vogue at the time.
The group should have some or all of the following encounters before meeting Kiva and his Guardian Vixen.
a. Mad Gerald
Mad Gerald (professed interest: "only by understanding chaos
can we destroy it"; real topic: weaving macramé using his own body
hair) has been down in the archives for the past 17 years, and has
built a little nook for himself filled with all the books he's interested
in. He is slowly turning into a broo from reading too much from the
Book
of Drastic Resolutions. Nevertheless, he offers to share his
meagre supply of food (boiled rat), and offers to come along and assist,
wants to be really helpful, etc. He has no idea where the Ex Files
really are, and this should eventually become apparent if he comes along.
Mad Gerald will take a shine to one PC in particular - I suggest you make it the person most revolted by him! Mad Gerald will give his sweetheart a 'little present' - a tiny pendant shaped like a horned skull, made from appears to be tarnished silver, a finger bone and some hair. It is on a leather thong that can be worn like a necklace (but is, in fact, a garrote). This pendant will protect the person wearing or carrying it from Thanatar Mad Head ghosts.
b. Party of Lost Apprentices
The group find a trail of ripped pages from a book going down the corridor.
Following it, they stumble upon another group of apprentices, also on their
field trip, but hopelessly lost. They lost their bookworm some time
back, and have been tearing up successive books to leave a path of where
they've been. Destroying knowledge like this isn't really cricket
in the eyes of the Lhankor Mhy cult, but these guys seem to be terrified.
The players can help or hinder the group, who are also competing for the honours in the exams. If the lost apprentices feel that they have been helped by the PCs (eg. told where the exit is), with shaking hands leader will give them a scroll that he says might 'be of help deeper down'. Getting him to elaborate further will only make him go white and start mumbling to himself as he scurries towards the way out.
The scroll is written in Esrolian, and contains the words of the Lhankor Mhy head-smashing ritual, which is used to destroy the Mad Head ghosts of the vile Thanatar cult.
In the name of Full Knowledge
I rip this tool from Thanatar,
To confound his presence
In the scheme of being
And to hasten the end of chaos.
Go, spirit, to the fate of your will!
c. Cache of Banned Books
The bookworm takes the group right up to a door which is sealed up.
A faded sign posted on the door reads, Restricted Collection - Mature
Sages Only, by order Mutiog (the current high priest - professed
interest: divination, particularly by haruspicory; real interest: remaining
high priest and making sure Anias doesn't get his job).
Inside is a cache of banned and restricted books - The Golden Books of Elephantis (pop-up edition), the most copious collection of Yelmic pornography ever assembled, a whole shelf of the banned God Learner Archive, heretical works from the Lunar Empire, dark tomes from the time of Arkat, the autobiography of Treack Markhor (founder of the Thanatar cult), a book of Rokari incantations, a scroll featuring the Vadeli secret of Immortality (including recipes) and lots more besides.
Note: if any of the PCs (or their masters) have, ahem 'specialised' interests, it's possible that one or two books appertaining to that field are here.
If anyone attempts to remove a book from this room, the Lhankor Mhy
cult spirit of reprisal Brain Flayer materialises and attacks them in spirit
combat. Every time the Brain Flayer succeeds, the victim has part
of their brain go blank. Apart from having to act less and less intelligent
after every attack, the victim must also reveal one of the 3 things they
believe are true from their character sheet and act upon it as literally
as possible for a while. The Brain Flayer continues attacking until
the victim returns the book to the room, or at least drops it on the floor.
The brain-draining effects last for as long as they are dramatically appropriate,
but the victim retains no memory at all of what was read.
d. Flooded Basement
The bookworm points down a flight of stairs into a basement, flooded
with black, rank water. The stairs go up on the other side.
The room is about 10 meters across, and the water is about 4 meters deep.
Books, folios and scroll cases bob in the water, and the whole room has
a fetid smell. The group have to get across the obstacle, which is
made more difficult by the krashtkid living in the water.
The best method to get across is by floating on some of the huge leather
folios that line the stairway. They contain priceless diagrams of
Yelm's Heavenly Mansion on the Spike before Time, but at least they float!
8.
Kiva and his Guardian, Vixen
After many harrowing hours journey, the bookworm leads them through
countless galleries of musty shelves into a large room. Here, it
suddenly falls flat - they have arrived in the room where the Ex files
must be located. Unfortunately, the room is huge, and lined floor
to ceiling with books, scrolls and tomes, and more are scattered haphazardly
all over the floor, as if loosened in some long-forgotten earth tremor.
At the far end of the room, a great chasm opens in the floor. At
the other, a man sits by a faintly flickering, surrounded by stacks of
books. He murmurs as he reads in the dimness, running his finger
along the pages as he goes.
This is Kiva, a Thanatar priest (professed interest: devouring knowledge; real interest: building up his head collection). He's in here, using his Devour Book spell to erase knowledge: if they look carefully, they'll see that as his fingers move along the page, the words are literally vanishing.
The fire Kiva sits by is a Darklight flame, which only Thanatari can see by (so to him, the room is bright and clear). If the players look carefully, they'll see he's using pages from books as fuel.
Kiva is dressed exactly like a respectable senior sage (save that he has bare feet and his toenails are painted purple). He puts on a friendly, avuncular sort of charm when the group enters the room, and says that as he has been studying in here for the past 11 years, he'd be more than happy to help them find what they are looking for.
Kiva puts the party off the guard by asking after Anias and Columbus Mercator, and sympathising about their plight as apprentices - he says it was easier 'back in his day'.
Note: In actual fact Kiva is not native to the area, but recently took the head of the Sage Salokin Dyoll. He was lured into the underground archives by Vixen, who posed as a young and flirtatious apprentice. What Kiva knows about local matters was sucked out of Salokin's mind by the disgusting Thanatari head-taking ritual.
If Kiva is asked about the Ex Files, he says, ah yes, his apprentice only had them out the other day! He claps his hands, and a young woman appears out of the darkness. This is Vixen, Kiva's guardian, a Thanatar spirit which inhabits the bodies of specially prepared victims. While young and pretty, Vixen is rather grubby and is in fact covered in bruises and scratches (guardians are not very good at taking care of their host bodies). Her long, straggly hair is tied back in a braid; this is actually a leather garrote which she can whip out in an instant.
Vixen has a somewhat vacant expression, though she visibly animates
when someone talks to her. The PC who has Salokin Dyoll for a master
will recognise her as the missing apprentice who disappeared with the sage
a week ago, even though she's not currently wearing her false beard.
If asked about Salokin, Vixen says that he is in the next room, along with
Ex
Files, and beckons them to follow.
9.
The Mad Head Ghosts
At Kiva's prompting, Vixen attempts to lead the characters to the far
end of the room, where the dark chasm opens from the floor. In the
pit, a number of Mad Head Ghosts, victims of Kiva's foul magic,
lay rotting in foul water along with the remains of Salokin Dyoll's headless
body.
Vixen points to a large scroll case, high up on one shelf. It is labelled as the Ex Files, the object of their search! As the characters approach, the ghastly apparitions rise out of the floor and attack, moaning and wailing.
Meanwhile, Kiva, who has padded behind silently with his bare feet, slips a garrote around the last PC. As he struggles to take the PC's head, his robe comes open: inside, strapped to his belt, is the decapitated head of Salokin Dyoll. The shrunken head moans and screams hoarsely during the struggle, its spirit captured and enslaved by Thanatar magic.
Vixen also flicks out her garrote and attempts to strangle another victim. Meanwhile, the Mad Head ghosts fly about, attacking anyone without the special tarnished silver medallion that all Thanatari wear to ward against them. Anyone wearing Mad Gerald's pendant is safe from the ghosts, and they will avoid this person.
Mad Head Ghosts drive their victims insane. Each successful attack requires the PC to reveal one of the 5 things no one knows about them, and act upon it as literally as possible for a while (as long as is dramatically appropriate!) If a victim is forced to reveal all 5 secrets, they are also driven permanently mad and would require many long months in the Temple Sanatorium if they hope to be someday cured.
During the fight, Kiva yells out to the PC carrying Mad Gerald's pendant 'Are you with us or against us?' Thanatar devotees are not unknown amongst the ranks of Lhankor Mhy apprentices (indeed, disgruntled scholars are a major source of recruitment into the vile cult!), and Kiva does not want to harm a potential ally. Kiva's call will probably confuse the other PCs though, and make them very suspicious, particularly as the ghosts also seem to be keeping away!
The PCs must defeat Kiva, Vixen and the ghosts. The best way to destroy the ghosts is with the Lhankor Mhy head-smashing ritual, though to properly finish off the ghosts, someone will have to jump in the 2.5 meter pit and stomp on the rotting skulls there.
Vixen falls dead the instant Kiva dies, and his shrunken head shrivels
and withers.
10.
Retrieving the Ex Files
The Ex Files lie in the specially-marked scroll case on a shelf
just beyond the great fissure in the floor. The case contains several
pieces of rolled-up parchment, all inscribed in tiny, virtually unreadable
script, in a language that is most likely unfamiliar to all (Old Pavic).
In any case, they are completely uninteresting to anyone without the sort
of specialised knowledge of Anias.
The return to the surface can be as hectic or uneventful as you choose.
The bookworm can lead them safely back to the entrance, where another
sage, the duck Anaximander (professed interest: the mysterious
origin of the ducks, true interest: becoming the first duck in Time to
fly) has taken over duty from Columbus Mercator. Looking somewhat
ridiculous with his pasted-on beard, he takes back the bookworm
and tells them to go see Anias, pronto!
11.
Anias Checks the Facts
Anias is in no better mood than before, and impatiently snatches the
scroll-case. He scans the sheets for a few seconds, says 'hmmm, hmmm,
yes, thought so...', rolls the Ex Files up again and puts them back
in the scroll case. All that effort for just a few seconds consultation?
You bet! He then tells the PCs they're ready for their oral exam,
and to send in the next batch of apprentices. Make sure they hear
Anias the next group that their field trip is to put the Ex Files
back on the shelves where they came from!
12.
The Oral Exam
In this, the final test, the PCs must defend their thesis before a
panel of examiners - Anias, Columbus Mercator and Marv Monrogh. Dr
Monrogh also explains that the fourth member of the panel is the student
representative council nominee. The PCs must now decide amongst themselves
who this will be.
Defending the thesis is quite simple: each player must speak for 30 seconds about their subject of interest. At the end, the examiners get to ask questions.
Regardless of the subject at hand, Dr Monrogh brings up his findings from the SAT test earlier. These answers could be especially embarrassing in front of Anias!
Anias asks pointed questions about the topic, but is best answered by appealing to his tremendous vanity and opinion of his own wisdom.
Columbus Mercator turns all his questions back to his own crackpot theory, and if any PC made him promises earlier on (eg. volunteering to serve as crew on his circumnavigation expedition), he'll try to hold them to it.
The SRC panel member is also entitled to ask any questions at all.
13.
Graduation
Regardless of the answers to the SAT test and the conduct of the oral
exam, it's nevertheless likely everyone will pass (tut, tut, whatever happened
to academic standards?). The SRC panel member helps the other senior
sages vote on class rankings, from bottom of the class up to Dux.
Allow the other sages to be swayed by the player's arguments, and choose
whichever candidate has the most MGF potential. Note that the SRC
member is perfectly entitled to nominate himself for Dux!
Some time later, in front of the whole temple the new sages receive their diplomas. In addition, those capable of growing beards are given their own personalised facial grooming kit. Those who can't - eg. ducks, newtlings, most females (except trolls), receive a new and very handsome false beard and bottle of paste. Finally, the new Dux is proclaimed. The doddering high priest shakes the winning candidate's hand and announces to all assembled that, as a special honour, the Dux this year is to be given the honour of devising and implementing a new cataloging system for the underground archives. 'And', he says, beaming at the other new sages, 'our Dux can chose his own team of research assistants to help him in his subterranean labours.'
The (Bitter) End