IMonster s L A N D An Adventure Setting For RuneQuest 6th Edition RuneQuest is a trademark of Issaries Inc. Used under License by The Design Mechanism. All rights reserved. This edi- tion of Monster Island is copyright © 2013. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without permission from The Design Mechanism, except as quoted for purposes of illustration, discussion and game play. Reproduction of the material in this book for the purposes of personal or corporate profit, by photographic, electronic, or other methods of retrieval is strictly prohibited. For details of the RuneQuest Gateway license, please contact The Design Mechanism ([email protected]). abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz12345678 Contents 87654321zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba Map of Monster Island 4 Introduction 5 1. The Island 8 2. History and Cultures 17 3. Settlements 42 4. Places of Interest 65 5. Campaigns 113 6. Magic 116 7. Items and Substances 165 8. Flora and Fauna 188 Appendices 282 Index 292 Monster Island  Contents 4 Monster Island e chapter 1: The Island The Plateau feline carnivores also hunt here, but seasonally migrate to and from the cloud forest regions. With little biomass and Formed from the roughly level bottom of the Rangi few animals to feed upon, insect life is much reduced from Caldera, this region is a wide open plain of thorny, scrub- that in other areas of the island. A few species of harmless like vegetation encircled by a towering wall of mountains. ants mine out subterranean nests, which can be dug up by Named the Puna Plateau, the caldera wall is open to the those who know of the sweet nectar they collect. Moths south-west where the crater rim long ago collapsed into the also proliferate, hatching and dying in sequence with the Tane Caldera, leaving a sheer cliff face dropping down into lunar cycle. the cloud forest below. Dry and cold, the atmosphere of the plateau has led to it being populated by vegetation completely different to the High Mountains Monster Island has two chains of mountains carved jungles of the island’s lower elevations. Most of the mois- from the rims of the Tane and Rangi Calderas. ture comes from the night-time frost. Few of the plants The longer Tane range varies in height, from 1,500 grow above waist height, save for a small area bordering metres near where the crater drops into the ocean, up to the plateau’s single lake. Almost all of the scrub is either 3,250 metres in the centre of the isle. As such most of the tough grasses, cacti of various prickly types or spiny shrubs Tane Mountains are covered with cloud forest, thinning at with small waxy leaves to prevent evaporation. their sharp crests where tropical storms scour the summits. Lack of water forces the plants to grow in patchy clumps Conversely the Rangi Mountains reach over 5,000 interspersed by basalt stones and bare areas of gritty soil, metres, their white-tipped peaks dominating the entire making the entire plateau look somewhat like a blasted des- island. Due to some inexplicable feature of their volcanic ert. The plain isn’t truly flat, possessing small undulations, upthrust and erosion, the sides of the worn crater rim are winkles and shallow gullies from where the ancient caldera precipitous, sloping between 60-80o and granting them a buckled from the forces of its creation. These have been stunning majesty. They literally loom threateningly over weathered by wind or frost, providing much of the coarse the land. sand that makes up the barren soil. Nearer the mountain- Between 3,000 and 4,500 metres the slopes possess ous rim are scattered larger rocks, boulders which have diminishing amounts of plant life, mostly isolated patches obviously fallen from its steep walls. of scrub, grass and hardy alpine flowers. Above this is the The climate of the Puna is an odd combination of fluctu- snowline where flora can no longer survive. That said, most ating temperature, aridity and cutting winds. At night the of the mountain slopes are exposed crags of basalt, the veg- region is cold, often dropping to near freezing. Shielded by etation clinging to ledges or sheltered crevasses. high peaks, most of the plateau receives no direct sunlight Few animals inhabit the higher slopes, only small climb- until mid morning, so this chillness perseveres long after ing rodents which can reach isolated plants and the occa- dawn. The thin air however, blocks little of the sun’s warmth, sional exotic life form that comes through the gates. Large so once illuminated the plain soon heats up, becoming an predatory birds and some flying beasts use this region to oven. As the sun descends towards dusk, its gradually red- nest, protected by the isolation and difficulty of scaling dening light continues to illuminate the mountains for a the peaks. However they must descend to lower altitudes short while even after it has set. The baking warmth how- to gather food, the mountains being comparatively sterile ever soon disperses and the temperature plummets. despite their considerable surface area. These wildly swinging temperatures cause havoc with The high altitude makes these elevations particularly the air flow over the island, sometimes causing strong cold. Even direct sunlight barely brings the tempera- winds to circulate within the caldera. Unfortunately these ture above freezing and at night it drops well below 0o C. can pick up a lot of the rough soil, turning breezes into pain- Damp air which reaches this height generally deposits its fully abrasive gusts that drive grit into eyes and clothes. In last remnants of moisture as hoar frost or very fine pow- the dry season, particularly hot days combined with just der snow. Above the snow line this has accumulated over the right prevailing winds can give rise to small twisters, centuries to form several small glaciers that descend the which pose a threat to the indigenous fauna. mountain slopes to near the plateau where they eventually Most of the plateau is lightly grazed by small to medium melt, forming the source of minor streams. These minor sized herbivores that in turn are preyed upon by avian pred- ators inhabiting the surrounding mountains. Some modest e15e Monster Island e chapter 2: History & Cultures Within High Folk society status is used to ask for or demand a favour, depending on the respective status of the personage petitioned. In such situations the status value is treated as a skill and rolled against with a d100. The skill check can suffer increased difficulty grades for requests out of proportion to the rank of the petitioner, or those that might place the superior in some danger, whether politically or physically. In cases where the peti- tioned personage does not wish to fulfil the request, they may oppose with their own status. Such requests are normally formalised with flowery, polite language – in effect an eloquent oration present- ing the reasons why the request should be granted, or in the case of refusals, an explanatory list of well founded excuses. Gifts of suitable worth can sometimes negate a level or two of skill penalty, but cannot raise the chance above the base status value. Thus it might be perfectly reasonable for a sorcerer of high status to request that one of its accompanying body- guards, say a low ranking member of the Brotherhood of the Fang, to cast itself into the path of a ravening tyran- nosaur; whilst the sorcerer and the rest of its party escape with the dinosaur’s egg. It would be a very polite demand, but unless the bodyguard successfully opposed the sor- cerer’s roll with its own status check, they would have to perform the duty. Conversely if the bodyguard requested personal retinue. In turn brotherhood members dominate a boon from the sorcerer, say the loan of an ensorcelled their own underlings, based upon their rank. weapon to slay a rival in an opposing brotherhood, its sta- tus check would be Hard or Formidable to reflect the dan- For sorcerers status is calculated by the following. ger of losing the artefact or the deed being traced back to the sorcerer. ҉ Each sorcerous rank +15 Since High Folk society focuses on brotherhood mem- ҉ Each brotherhood brought under their sole control bership and utilises anonymous breeding practices, there +5 is no real way of determining close family connections. ҉ Each sorcery spell known +1 Each of the Mysterious Cities of Gold has a population ҉ Surviving a pilgrimage across the island and return- of between two and three thousand adults, a third again ing with a great treasure +5 are young of various ages and a further fifth are enslaved Savages. For breeders status is dependent on different concepts: All the High Folk speak the High Tongue as their native language, but only the sorcerer caste are permitted to learn ҉ Each brotherhood rank +10 the arts of reading and writing. In addition, some are skilled ҉ Each brotherhood member under their direct control in the Low Tongue also; generally those who venture from +1 their cities as diplomats, spies or scouts. ҉ One tenth of the highest value brotherhood-specific skill L aw ҉ Discovering a new technique or method pertinent to The High Folk legal system is somewhat alien, in that it the brotherhood +5 comprises only of three criminal acts: treachery, sedition and treason. Treachery is a crime performed for personal e32e Monster Island j chapter 3: Settlements the precipitous slope, unsurprising considering the num- Port Grimsand – ber of minor quakes the island suffers. Thus the majority of the buildings are small crafter’s shops of various types, Human Colony incorporating swinging jigs with which they raise or lower goods to the wharfs below.