September 2026 Archives

Ludo gets the episode number wrong! Also, he’s sick and tried to edit all of his sniffling and coughing out of the audio, but you’ll probably hear some here and there.

Our Guest

Our guest is once again Austin Conrad!

His website is Akhelas.
Get his various books on DriveThruRPG!
Learn movies and US geography with Austin’s jokes! (Ludo makes excuses for not getting those pretty straightforward jokes)

Other Business

Ludo also advertises the Glorantha articles on his blog, and in particular his post on Chaos as criminal organizations. We discuss this for a bit.

Main Topic

We return to the tale of Paulis Longvale! Ludo summarizes the story so far, but you should really listen to the previous episodes in this series (see episode 34 and episode 36). In this episode we end up talking way too long and only get through two chapters of the story: Thanatar and the Crimson Bat.

Ludo notes that each cult is written by a different author, and how that makes the chapters feel different.

Austin reminds us that Simon Phipp’s stuff on Dorastor is great, and there’s a LOT, starting with Secrets of Dorastor. We interviewed Simon in episode 35.

Here’s the map from Cults of Terror that might be useful to follow along some of the discussions in this episode:

Thanatar

Ludo describes Halgrim’s plan and thinks it’s terrible.
We discuss the various ways to cross the mountains into Dorastor.
“Plateau of Wrath” is an excellent name, and it has some cool history related to Arkat (the “super RuneQuest stuff that Arkat is known for”).
Ludo talks about Razalkark’s Citadel and how its description evolved between RQ2 and RQ3 (“even Chaotic people have gentrification”).
Joerg goes into the “multiple Razalkark theory” (which isn’t a theory, he says)
Of course we end up in the multiple Arkats theory too.
Austin gets crazy about all these theories, and mention King of Sartar’s storyline about the “Monster Empire”. Feeling bad, Austin brings us back on topic.
Ludo complains about heavy crossbows in his bronze/iron age fantasy. Joerg tries to justify it.
We look at the treaty that Bolthor negotiated with Razalkark and find it “acceptable”.
Austin mentions the “Risklands” campaign from the RQ3 Dorastor book, showing how the local Orlanthi are the assholes, trying to push into Razalkark’s lands.
“The problem are the hillbilly people, not the Chaotic people”.
Ludo and Austin talk about their game, and how Ludo tried very hard to make the PCs compromise on their values.
Negotiating with Razalkark is like negotiating with Hitler to divide Poland.
We also try to compare the situation to the Cold War, and how that would transform a game set around Dorastor.
We discuss the big fight between Bolthor and the PCs.
Ludo talks about his love for the Thanatar cult.
“Babeester Gor dick magic!”
There is some talk about the problems with that particular Thanatar cultist in this combat, and more generally how the text of the rules compares to the text of the fiction.
Joerg mentions head-hunting as an ancient Orlanthi tradition.
Once again we mention the use of “rules-talk” inside the fiction.
We get into an argument about whether Bolthor is a Runemaster or not.
How much Rune magic does Paulis have?
Which of the Seven Mothers and other Lunar cults are actually improvements upon the Lightbringers pantheon?
“Irripi Ontor is a scholar WITH A GUN”
On the difficulty of making a campaign in the Lunar Empire, without making an apology for imperialism and such.
Exploring the moral conundrums of “complicated” situations, like a game in which you play a KGB agent. Ludovic unsurprisingly mentions Delta Green.
Austin parallels moments of The Iliad with Halgrim’s sacrifice, and more generally about manufacturing epic and mythically resonant moments in an RQ game.
Austin also talks about the difficulty to prepare dramatic moments in a game, compared to a short story.
Ludo talks about TTRPG games benefiting from being less nuanced and subtle than novels and movies.
Austin shares a “goblin in a funny hat” story from his game.
How would you arrange Bolthor’s head-halves if you were to decorate your village with them?

Crimson Bat

Negotiate with the Lunars! It’s good for you!
Austin is annoyed by the generational way Sartarite succession works.
Austin mentions his players going against the Crimson Bat…. wisely, they ran.
The Crimson Bat illustration from 13th Age Glorantha is so fucking great!
We talk a bit about various giant Chaotic monsters, like Cwim and the Cacodemon.
What size is the Crimson Bat’s Glowspot? Did it already have it in the God Time?
Is Austin being “lore accurate” or just “a smart-ass”?
RQ2’s “manichean cults” vs RQG’s “it’s all cults, you decide”.
Evil and Chaotic are different things!
“Glorantha is great for moral relativists”
Does Glorantha have an ontological evil?
“The cultists of Wakboth have ACTUAL faith”.
Ludo’s hot take sends Joerg into deep upcoming/unpublished lore.
Writing RQG stat-blocks is a bore.
Is the Crimson Bat’s size variable?
The Crimson Bat vs Mothra!
Super-RuneQuest or Call-of-RuneQuest?
Can you parry a dinosaur? Can you parry the Crimson Bat?
The Crimson Bat’s mouth as an Area-of-Effect attack.
How much does the Crimson Bat need to eat? Let’s starve it!
Playing the Crimson Bat as a cat who’s fussy with food.
The Crimson Bat cult advertising the “leaderboards” for the next city to be visited by the bat.
What qualifies as Chaotic? We get into some weeds there.
“I hate the greater good”
There’s wiggle room in the cult compatibility chart.
A Lunar Joe Rogan podcast!
Chaotic Evil is different than Morally Evil! Morally Evil is OKAY!
The Lunar Empire compared to the US and the British Empire, nations to which you may (should?) have an ambivalent relation.
The Lunar Heartlands are one of the best places to live in Glorantha.
The Lunar Empire has checks and balances! Everything is under control!
The Lunar Empire can be easily compared with any big power of the last 2000 years, without being an allegory for any particular one, and that’s why it’s so compelling.