RuneQuest - [Slaine Setting] Slaine.pdf - Slaine (Runequest) - siemszak

Contents

Credits & Contents 1

Introduction 2

The Land of the Young 3

Character Creation 6

New Skills and Legendary Abilities 16

Goods and Weapons 24

Earth Power 35

A Guide to Sláine’s World 72

The Sessair 86

The Finians 96

The Fir Domain 110

The Falians 126

Lands of theDrune Lords 139

The Borderlands 158

Dinas Emrys 177

Adventures in the Land of the Young 180

Gods and Goddesses of Tir Nan Og

Credits

Author

Ian Sturrock

Cartography

Phil Renne

Developer

Nick Robinson

Publications Manager

Ian Belcher

Cover Art

Clint Langley

Production Director

Alexander Fennell

Runequest Logo

Anne Stokes

Proofreading

Ted Chang

Interior Illustrations

Clint Langley, Massimo

Bellardinelli

Playtester

Adam Gulwell

187

Bestiary

192

Campaigns in Tir Nan Og

219

Herd Duty

223

Index

229

characters and indicia are registered Trademarks or trademarks of Rebellion A/S. Visit www.2000adonline.com for more

information. The exclusive copyright in the artwork and the images it depicts is the property of Rebellion A/S. No part of this

book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior permission from the publishers.

of the publisher is expressly forbidden. This game product contains no Open Game Content. No portion of this work may

be reproduced in any form without written permission. To learn more about the Open Game License, please go to www.

mongoosepublishing.com. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United Kingdom. This product is a work of

ﬁ ction. Any similarity to actual people, organisations, places or events is purely coincidental.

Introduction

W elcome to Tir Nan Og, a land where ancient

This book contains all the background information

needed to start a RuneQuest campaign in the world

of Sláine. You will need the RuneQuest book to make

full use of the material in this book. The RuneQuest

Companion, Legendary Heroes, RuneQuest Arms and

Equipment and RuneQuest Monsters are not required

but will also prove useful.

Celtic legends mingle with prehistoric

fact, thousands of years ago, just after the

end of the last Ice Age. Tir Nan Og is known as the

Land of the Young, for very few of its people live to

old age. The noble Tribes of the Earth Goddess keep

their proud warrior traditions alive in northern Tir Nan

Og, but are constantly threatened by the Fomorian sea-

devils, tribes of the evil Drune Lords, and bloodthirsty

berserkers of Midgard. The gods and goddesses of

the Land of the Young take a personal interest in its

affairs, and it is quite possible to interact directly with

them in their own lands, and even to call upon their aid

on the battleﬁ eld.

New to Sláine?

You are in for a real treat! Coming straight from the

pages of 2000AD, the comic-strip hero Sláine lives

in Tir Nan Og, a land of magic and legend. No other

fantasy setting draws on such a deep vein of Irish and

other Celtic mythology, presenting a fully detailed

ancient world of war, monsters, sorcery, and the very

gods themselves.

The Sláine roleplaying game allows Players to take the

role of mighty Celtic heroes exploring a land in which

legends are real and a strong warrior can carve out a

reputation that may last for millennia. As members of

the Tribes of the Earth Goddess, they will be called on

to raid or war against rival tribes, quest after ancient

treasures, or defend their lands against invading sea-

devils. Over the years they will build up their honour

and reputation, until one day they might join the ranks

of the tribe’s most elite warriors, or even become tribal

leaders themselves.

If you have never encountered Sláine before, you are

encouraged to start reading The Land of the Young,

starting on page 3, followed by A Guide to Sláine’s

World on page 72, before commencing with the main

rules. This will give you a good introduction to the

blend of Celtic myth, prehistoric fact and barbarian

fantasy that make up the setting of Sláine. From there,

go on to page 6 and start creating some characters to

begin play with. In many ways, human warriors are

the easiest characters with which to begin playing

this game, as they have a deﬁ nite place in the tribal

structure, and a strong motivation to do great deeds so

as to increase their honour and reputation. In addition,

they almost always have something to do – whether

honing their combat skills, patrolling for enemy cattle-

raiders, heading out on a cattle raid themselves, or

defending their tribe from attack.

By playing the Sláine roleplaying game, you can

create a character who lives both in the magical land

of Tir Nan Og and in your own imagination and that

of your friends. One Player will take the role of the

Games Master, controlling the people and creatures

who dwell within the land whilst the other Players

will be either valiant heroes, wise druids, wily thieves

or cunning witches. The Games Master sets Tir Nan

Og before the other Players, allowing them to explore

everywhere from the frozen wastes of Lochlann in the

north, to the magically drained Sourlands in the south

and the territory of the evil Drune Lords beyond.

Witches, druids and characters from the three non-

human races (dwarves, rmoahal and warped ones) are

a little more complicated to play, partly because they

do not ﬁ t so easily into the context of a tribe and partly

because of their various special abilities. For this

reason they are usually best left till both Players and

Games Masters are familiar with Tir Nan Og.

What You Need To

Play

To begin playing the Sláine roleplaying game, all you

need is the following;

The Land of the

Young

T ir Nan Og is the legendary Celtic Land of the

The Finians are the northernmost tribe of the Earth

Goddess, occupying most of Alba and parts of Northern

Albion. They tend to be dour and taciturn, but like most

of the Earth Goddess tribes are eager for and competent

at war. Many vicious battles with the Fomorians have

taught the Finians how to handle great hardship, and they

are well used to surviving an entire military campaign

on a handful of oats and the occasional boiled turnip.

Young, a world rather like a mythical version of

Northern Europe in a time before much of that

continent sank beneath the waves. The four Tribes of the

Earth Goddess, on whom the Sláine stories concentrate,

are threatened on all sides, with the constant risk of the

Fomorians sweeping down from the icy north, the Drune

Lords encroaching from the south, and the ravages of

the berserkers of Midgard in the east.

The Sessair and Finians suffer ﬁ rst and foremost from

the depredations of the Fomorians, since both tribes

inhabit the northern regions closest to Lochlann and

Tory Island. This has forged a grim respect between the

two tribes, though this mutual respect does not prevent

them from warring against and raiding one another at

every opportunity – rather, they recognise each other

as worthy foes. Unlike the Finians, the Sessair are also

well aware of the danger of the Drune Lords, since so

many young Sessair end up wandering the Land of the

Young as part of mercenary bands.

The Earth Goddess tribes are also known as the northern

tribes, or as the Tuatha de Danaan, literally ‘People of

Danu.’ Danu is the name of the great Goddess they all

revere, the primal Earth Mother who birthed them all

and will one day receive them all into death. She is

served directly by the druids, placated and sacriﬁ ced to

more secretively by the witches, and simply worshipped

by every other member of the northern tribes.

The lands of the Earth Goddess tribes are Alba in the

north, Albion in the south, and Cambria and Eriu to the

west. These correspond roughly to the modern British

Isles while those lands were still attached to mainland

Europe, though the Tribes of the Earth Goddess lived

many thousands of years in the past.

The Fir Domain, known as the Tribe of the Growling

Shields, is a ﬁ erce and warlike tribe occupying most

of the land of Albion. This central position in Tir Nan

Og means the Fir Domain are often attacked by titans,

Drune Lord tribes, and Norsemen. Despite this the Fir

Domain are enthusiastic about warring with the other

Earth Goddess tribes too, considering their other foes

as barely worth bothering with. They regard the Titans

as something of a pest, rather than a proper enemy, and

organise Titan-hunting expeditions with great glee.

The Sessair are one of the most feared tribes in all of

Tir Nan Og, and are famed for deliberately attempting

to receive wounds in battle so as to demonstrate their

toughness. They range over Northern Eriu and parts of

Northern Albion. Their ancient city, Murias, is just to

the North of the Inland Sea, on the west bank of the

River Dôn. The Sessair are feared particularly for their

terrifying Red (or Violent) Branch, an elite warrior

band who are always at the forefront of any charge and

seem to have no thought for their own survival, only for

destroying their foes. The Red Branch are initiated at

the Sessair’s most sacred site, the Great Cairn in Eriu, a

vast stone mound sacred to Danu the Earth Goddess and

Lugh the Sun God.

The Tribe of Shadows have suffered greatly from the

attacks of the Drunes and from the encroaching of

sourland (once fertile land now drained of all life by evil

sorcery) onto their ﬁ elds and pastures. They ﬁ ght back

in a different manner, painting themselves black and

specialising in night attacks. Their lands stretch across

most of southern Eriu and much of Cambria, though the

minor tribes of Cambria are fairly independent.

In recent years, the Tribe of Shadows have been in

something of a decline, after a long and vicious war

with the usually peaceful Beaver Folk who inhabit the

Inland Sea and the surrounding marshes. It is said that

their attacks on the Beaver Folk have left them under a

curse from the Moon Goddess, which is the main reason

they ﬁ nd it so difﬁ cult to function in daylight.

Several minor territories also exist on the borderlands

between the Drune Lord tribes and the Earth Goddess

tribes. These include the small enclaves of the titans, the

lands of the Fir Bolg tribe, and Lyonesse.

The titans are giants who once ruled all of Albion, back

in the days before the Tuatha de Danaan arrived in the

land. It is said that they presided over a golden age of

peace and prosperity but, by the time the Earth Goddess

folk invaded the titans were already in decline both

intellectually and politically. Their once-great minds

seemed to have atrophied through centuries of easy

living and decadence, and they were unable to resist the

takeover of the more vigorous and numerous human

tribes. Today only a small number of titans remain, still

hunted occasionally by humans but for the most part

simply ignored.

To the south of the Earth Goddess tribes lie the

Tribes of the Drune Lords, once the same peoples as

the Earth Goddess folk but now utterly cowed by the

powerful and evil Drune sorcerers who rule their land.

The Drunes have long been experimenting with dark

magic, and in recent years this has caused great rifts

in time and space to tear through their lands, bringing

Time Monsters and other lethal beasts from the far past.

Drune sorcery has also drained much of the countryside

of the magical Earth Power that ﬂ ows through it. Earth

Power is a gift from the Goddess that is used for good

by the wise druids of the northern lands, but it has been

stolen by the Drunes to help them keep their subject

tribes under control. They sacriﬁ ce many of their own

people, and slay those who resist using their powerful

lightning magic.

The Fir Bolg are ancient cousins to the Fir Domain,

and live just south of them, close to the Drune lands.

In many respects their culture is between that of the

northern and southern tribes – they are independent

of Drune rulership, but they worship the Drune gods

Carnun and Crom-Cruach.

When Drunes are found wandering beyond the safety of

their cities and sacred groves, they usually travel with a

war party of skull-swords, their armoured soldiers. The

skull-swords guard the Drunes and assist them to enforce

their rule. Skull-swords tend to be better-disciplined

than the warriors of the Earth Goddess tribes, but are

often said to be cowardly and dishonourable.

Lyonesse was at one time a proud and lush magical

land in its own right, but most of its peoples are now

dead or dispersed and the land itself is predominantly

sourland. Merchant sky chariots (ﬂ ying ships) ply their

trade across it from the edges of the Drune lands, taking

cargoes of the Half-dead - dead men trapped between

the worlds by sorcery - to sell to the northern tribes as

battle-fodder in their wars.

The other great threat to the Earth Goddess tribes is

the Fomorians, foul mutants also known as sea-devils.

These amphibious humanoids live in the northern seas

and on the ice sheets of Lochlann, beyond northern

Alba. Though disorganised and not especially heroic,

they have the advantage of seemingly inexhaustible

numbers and a ferocious hatred of humanity. Their

leader, Balor of the Evil Eye, has the power to slay the

living simply by meeting their gaze.

It may well be that other lands lie across the seas of Tir

Nan Og, and certainly such lost lands feature in the tales

of mariners and other explorers. Little is known about

the continent beyond Midgard and the Drune Lords’

lands, either – another area ripe for discovery.

What is certain is that far beneath the Earth are several

more worlds, known as the El worlds. Home to elves,

goblins, elementals and other supernatural creatures,

these lands are very difﬁ cult to enter from Tir Nan Og,

and only druids, scholars and a few adventurers are

really aware of their existence as anything more than

superstition. Despite this relative ignorance, many

warriors have faced El creatures in battle, since they are

commonly conjured up by witches and other sorcerers

to do their bidding.

Beyond the lands of the Earth Goddess and Drune

Lord tribes, to the east of Tir Nan Og, lie the cold and

gloomy lands of Midgard, home to the Norsemen (also

called the Berserkers). The Norsemen are as ﬁ erce and

uncompromising as their ice-locked homeland and are

best known to the other tribes as raiders and pirates.

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