Bethorm: A Plane of Tekumel, The First Two Adventures.
First Bethorm adventures
The second game I ran at DDC 40 was a Tekumel game using the Bethorm rules by Jeff Dee. It was a continuation of an adventure I ran the previous year at two other conventions and at a private game I ran for some friends of mine. The name of first game was called The Sakbe to Redemption Or Ruin.
The Characters were:
Janshana hi Tlakotani, a low level, young administrator. (Imperial)
Visan hi Arusa, Son of the murdered man, warrior. (WC)
Zargar hi Korodu, Friend of murdered man, priest (WC)
Mara hi Tikal, Sister of Ridu's wife. Adriani (BK)
Horu hi Nazar, Ridu's best friend, trained in both magic and melee.
Squatty Knob, Janshana's Ahoggya bodyguard, grew up with Janshana as a pet.
The idea came to me as I remembered the old "road" movies. I thought of a group of people forced to be on the road together. And as the saying goes it's not the destination but the journey. I thought of a raw, untried, unproven, imperial administrator that had never left the clan compound who is given this seemingly minor task of escorting a killer from Bey Su to Jakalla.
I added two clan members from the Blue Kirtle Clan(medium level clan) the same clan as the accused killer called Ridu. His crime was the killing of a Hireku a member of the White Crystal Clan(high level clan). It was crime of passion and revenge.
Hireku had accidentally killed Ridu's wife. Though Hireku had paid the correct amount of Shamtla(blood or life debt) Ridu was angered by the callousness of the payment. Ridu and his wife had a very rare instance(in Tekumel society) of true love which had lasted 30 years with neither taking another wife or husband. So when Ridu was caught with a bloody knife in his hand he was held accused of the murder of Hireku which he did not deny.
To add tension, I added two characters both fellow clan members of Ridu. They were to represent the Blue Kirtle(a kirtle is a skirt like garment, Kilt) and were to escort Ridu and make sure Ridu did his duty to the clan, One was Mara his sister-in-law and Horu, his best friend. I did this because duty to the clan is very important in Tekumel and there loyalties to the clan, empire, gods and personal relations, I figured it would be pretty cool to test these loyalties on the Sakbe roads.
Just to throw in more tension, I added two characters of the White Crystal clan. One would be Visan, the son of Hireku, and Zargar, Hireku's close friend. I did this as a way to have all kinds of possibilities for betrayal or loyalty.
That first adventure I ran three times with widely different events happening but each time the mission, to get Ridu to Jakalla ALIVE, was accomplished.
So I decided to come back to the same set of characters and put them on the road again. This time it was a request from the imperial admin that had led the first mission. There had been a recent attempted assassination attempt on her and the only clue found was a crude map found on one of the assassins.
Janshana has decided to assemble the original members of the mission to Jakalla as she feels they are the only ones she can really trust and rely on. At least that is what she tells the other characters...
I had three players from the DDC 39's Sakbe to Redemption and Ruin return to the second installment of my Bethorm game. It went really well. The players really got into the characters, and even the new players slipped right into the feel of the setting. I was lucky to have such good players. Tekumel is all about the setting and not about hack and slash. So I had a good time running both adventures and they have asked if there will be another installment of my game so I was assured that it went well.
The Characters were:
Janshana hi Tlakotani, a low level, young administrator. (Imperial)
Visan hi Arusa, Son of the murdered man, warrior. (WC)
Zargar hi Korodu, Friend of murdered man, priest (WC)
Mara hi Tikal, Sister of Ridu's wife. Adriani (BK)
Horu hi Nazar, Ridu's best friend, trained in both magic and melee.
Squatty Knob, Janshana's Ahoggya bodyguard, grew up with Janshana as a pet.
The idea came to me as I remembered the old "road" movies. I thought of a group of people forced to be on the road together. And as the saying goes it's not the destination but the journey. I thought of a raw, untried, unproven, imperial administrator that had never left the clan compound who is given this seemingly minor task of escorting a killer from Bey Su to Jakalla.
I added two clan members from the Blue Kirtle Clan(medium level clan) the same clan as the accused killer called Ridu. His crime was the killing of a Hireku a member of the White Crystal Clan(high level clan). It was crime of passion and revenge.
Hireku had accidentally killed Ridu's wife. Though Hireku had paid the correct amount of Shamtla(blood or life debt) Ridu was angered by the callousness of the payment. Ridu and his wife had a very rare instance(in Tekumel society) of true love which had lasted 30 years with neither taking another wife or husband. So when Ridu was caught with a bloody knife in his hand he was held accused of the murder of Hireku which he did not deny.
To add tension, I added two characters both fellow clan members of Ridu. They were to represent the Blue Kirtle(a kirtle is a skirt like garment, Kilt) and were to escort Ridu and make sure Ridu did his duty to the clan, One was Mara his sister-in-law and Horu, his best friend. I did this because duty to the clan is very important in Tekumel and there loyalties to the clan, empire, gods and personal relations, I figured it would be pretty cool to test these loyalties on the Sakbe roads.
Just to throw in more tension, I added two characters of the White Crystal clan. One would be Visan, the son of Hireku, and Zargar, Hireku's close friend. I did this as a way to have all kinds of possibilities for betrayal or loyalty.
That first adventure I ran three times with widely different events happening but each time the mission, to get Ridu to Jakalla ALIVE, was accomplished.
So I decided to come back to the same set of characters and put them on the road again. This time it was a request from the imperial admin that had led the first mission. There had been a recent attempted assassination attempt on her and the only clue found was a crude map found on one of the assassins.
Janshana has decided to assemble the original members of the mission to Jakalla as she feels they are the only ones she can really trust and rely on. At least that is what she tells the other characters...
I had three players from the DDC 39's Sakbe to Redemption and Ruin return to the second installment of my Bethorm game. It went really well. The players really got into the characters, and even the new players slipped right into the feel of the setting. I was lucky to have such good players. Tekumel is all about the setting and not about hack and slash. So I had a good time running both adventures and they have asked if there will be another installment of my game so I was assured that it went well.
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