Wednesday, May 2, 2012

From the Classics: The Temple of Jomali

From Bosi and Herraud, c. 1300 AD:

'In this forest,' said the girl, 'there's a great temple belonging to King Harek, the ruler of Permia. The god worshipped there is called Jomali, and a great quantity of gold and jewels can be found there, too. The king's mother, Kolfrosta, is in charge of the temple. Her witchcraft is so powerful that nothing could ever take her by surprise. By her sorcery she's been able to predict that she won't live out the month, so she's travelled by magic east to Glasir Plains and carried of King Godmund's sister, Hleid, whom she means to take her place as the priestess of the temple.'
...
'An enormous vulture, so savage it destroys everything that comes anywhere near it. Not a living soul has a chance if the vulture's claws and venom come anywhere near him. Under this vulture lies the egg you've been sent to get. There's also a slave in the temple, who looks after the priestess's food - she eats a two-year-old heifer at every meal. And there's an enchanted demonic bull in the temple, shackled with iron chains. The bull's supposed to mount the heifer, poisoning her flesh, and then all who taste it go crazy. The heifer is to be cooked for Hleid, and then she'll turn into a monster like the priestess.'
...
Herraud gripped the bull by the ears and the jaw, and gave the neck such a violent twist that it broke... The vulture set its claws hard against the slave's buttocks and struck the tips of its wings against Bosi's ears... The fight took them to the spot where Bosi was lying, the floor around him soaked with blood. The priestess slipped in the vulture's blood and fell flat on her back... then Bosi got hold of the bull's head and hit the old hag hard on the nose with it. Herraud tore one of her arms off at the shoulder, and after that her spirit began to weaken. Even so, her final death throes caused an earthquake.
...
In the vulture's nest they found the egg, covered in letters of gold. They found so much gold there they had more than enough to carry. Then they came to the altar where Jomali was sitting, and from him they took a gold crown set with twelve precious stones, and a necklace worth three hundred gold marks; and from his knees they took a silver cup filled with red gold and so big that four men couldn't drink it dry.
...
In the temple they found a secret side-room with a stone door, securely locked. It took them a whole day to break it open and get inside. There they saw a woman sitting on a chair - never had they seen such a beautiful woman! Her hair was tied to the chair-posts, and was as fair as polished straw or threads of gold.



And there you have it; a complete D&D adventure site, courtesy of 14th century Scandinavians. The bold text I have added to highlight important points for the Dungeon Master.

I really can't get over the fact that the author specifies the gold piece value of the necklace.

3 comments:

  1. Yes, the GP valuation is uncanny. I've really got to read these legendary sagas that you've been talking about, they're much more high magic than the Sagas I've read (which take place after the colonization of Iceland). Those are awesome in their own way (especially Egil's Saga, most PC-like behavior in any pre-RPG source I've ever read) but don't have anything like this in them...

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  2. Ooooh, and Egil's grandfather is Ketil Trout's cousin :)

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  3. Yeah, there's a lot of family connections between the heroes of different sagas.

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