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  Simon E. Phipp(Geo Cities)
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"It Had Two Heads" Copyright (c) 1997 Simon E. Phipp
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Glorantha is Copyright Greg Stafford and all rights are reserved.

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# It Had Two Heads

## Contents

History
PC Involvement

## History

During the Darkness, the Forces of Chaos made many inroads. One of their favoured modes of attack was to corrupt wholesome things and make them Chaotic, thus increasing their forces. Thus The Gloomshsrk, Crimson Bat and Cave Trolls were made. Other things were occasionally perverted. One of these was a True Dragon. This was a Bad Thing.

The True Dragon looked at itself and thought about things then decided that it could not work out what had happened to it, so it decided to grow another head and have a discussion. The second head looked at itself, thought about things and began to discuss what had happened. Because the second head was new, it could see things the first head could not and managed to explain what had happened. Now, both heads were unhappy and the Dragon took to the Air.

The Dragon’s first call was to the land of Dorastor where it saw something nice to eat. That thing was the Giant Son of Dorastor, Tobros himself, who took one look at the Chaos Dragon and smashed both heads together. This stunned the Dragon and left it lying on the ground. Tobros picked up Seven huge handfuls of Rock and threw them on the Chaos Dragon, speaking words of Binding to keep it in place. Thus was the Dragon bound and kept sleeping.

During the Golden Empire, Nysalor saw the Chaos Dragon and bound it more tightly, setting up several Guardians who would keep it bound. One of these was the Dragonewt of Storm. As long as the Dragonewt was bound so would be the chaos Dragon.

In subsequent times, the Chaos Dragon has been sleeping fitfully. It nearly awoke during the DragonKill War but banged its heads on the rocks above and was knocked out once more. When it was resting it was still. When it was sleeping fitfully it dreamt of terrible things. Then Stoorworms, Dragons, Chaotic Dragonewts, many headed Wyrms and other nightmares stalked around the Seven Hills, waiting for Heroes to slay them.

## PC Involvement

When the PCs freed the Dragonewt of Storm and cured the Storm Dragon, they woke the Chaos Dragon because of the Draconic Energies expended and because the Dragonewt of Storm had been freed.

It took a while for the Chaos Dragon to fully awaken, but in the meantime many of its dreams walked the world.

When the Dragon Awoke it turned over in the Seven Hills, destroying much that was there an looked to the Skies. Things had changed since it had last awoken.

Ralzakark summoned the PCs to Fort Wrath. "What have you done? You have awakened the Chaos Dragon despite my warnings against it. You are Idiots. What are you going to do about it?" Ralzakark was not happy about a Chaos True Dragon appearing in Dorastor.

The PCs thought long and hard. Then they came up with a plan. They could not defeat the Dragon in combat, nor could they find allies who could defeat it. They could not destroy it. But they could change it. This is how.

Derak had an Artefact called the HeroStone which could remove the Taint Of Chaos from any creature with a POW vs POW roll. The PCs had just channelled Draconic Energy from the Dragonewt of Storm to the Storm Dragon and knew the Rituals involved. They could use the same ritual to link to the Chaos Dragon and to drawn the Chaos away through the HeroStone and to purge the Chaos Dragon. It was a million to one chance, but it might just work.

With the help of the Ralian Inhuman King, who was dismayed to see the Chaos Dragon awake, Derak and Bolgar prepared the Ritual. Bolgar was involved as he had channelled the energy to the Storm Dragon and was part draconic in nature. Derak was involved because it was his HeroStone. Brankist and Rilldick were not included "because it is too dangerous and anyway you would only cock things up". This did not endear Andrew to the plan as his two characters were not involved.

The Ritual began, the Channelling occurred. A thousand Dragonewts from Ralios provided their support and acted as cannon fodder, unbeknown to the PCs. Derak went into trance as did Bolgar. The energy ran through them. Rilldick and Brankist flew as fast as they could to the area in case they were needed. They came over the crest of a hill and saw the Chaos Dragon. "Make an INT roll" they did - Rilldick dropped dead with the things he saw and Brankist went mad "It had TWO HEADS" he said before running away.

Needless to say, the Channelling worked. The Thousand Dragonewts exploded with the strain. The Chaos went through the HeroStone and into the ground forming a Chaos Spot. The Dragon looked at itself, worked out what was happening and when it was clean of Chaos disappeared from view. There was a mighty flash as the link was broken and the world set to rights.

Bolgar and Derak were unaffected. Rilldick was resurrected. Brankist was cured by intensive Draconic therapy, but afterwards whenever anyone mentions the Chaos dragon he gibbers and cries "It had Two Heads". Sometimes I throw a two headed creature in his path just to see what happens, I am never disappointed. The HeroStone went a bit peculiar.

The HeroStone had several powers:
  It could close a Maw to Chaos by using a Ritual and making a POW roll.
  Once per day, on a POW vs POW roll it could absorb all Chaos Features and Chaos Taint from a single creature, cleaning it of Chaos. This made the HeroStone detect as Chaotic for an hour afterwards.
  Each day it could be used to draw 4 points of Rune Magic from Cults which were Enemy to Chaos (0 on the Reaction Table) when fighting Chaos. So, it could draw Seal Wound and Wind Words or Crush 4 or CounterChaos and Berserker or whatever.
  It multiplied Sense Chaos by 1.5.
  It acted as a Detect Chaos matrix.

Afterwards, it gained the same abilities but from a Chaos point of view.
  So it could open a Maw to Chaos and grant Chaos Features once per day.
  It provided an additional 4 Points of Chaotic magic per day.
  The usage restrictions were lifted, so you could draw 4 points of Chaotic/Non Chaotic magic for any use each day.
  It acted as a Detect Law matrix and increased Sense Law by 1.5.
  It did not show up as Chaotic when it absorbed Chaos Features.

These changes frightened Derak more than anything else which had happened. He knew that he would use the Chaotic magics and that it would push him further to the Dark Side. On the plus side, he could now Absorb Book and Devour Knowledge for fast learning of skills and spells, so everything has a good side.

I think he used many of the Spells of Chaos afterwards. Thanatar was a favourite, but Krarsht was close. He was a very Bad Man.