Eurhol's Vale & Other Tales is a collection of four short stories by Penelope Love set in the fantasy world of Glorantha. It was published by The Chaos Society in 2007 with permission from Greg Stafford, and here's my review.
The book is a 192-page long paperback with color cover and back cover. The text inside has narrow margins, and some runes decorate the blank spaces between chapters (they hide messages from the editor, but nothing exciting!). The illustration on the cover by Dario Corallo depicts a scene from the second short story, and it is quite striking with the Durulz and the broo. Still, it would have been better to depict the main human characters instead to avoid giving potential readers a wrong impression. On the back there is a small piece of black and white art depicting a scene from the third short story.
Eurhol's Vale
The first story is a short prequel to the epic novella The Widow's Tale (read my review). It starts with Arqua and Talloran arriving at the vale and meeting Rulk right at the entrance, and then Shisanna. If you haven't read The Widow's Tale, this small vale lies in the mountains between the plains of Prax and the Whitewall citadel, and it is there where these characters (together with many others) mount a daring defense against the Lunar Empire. This first story in Eurhol's Vale & Other Tales is of much lesser importance, but still vital for the survival of its inhabitants. Talloran, the Wind Lord, and Arqua the Sword of Humakt arrive to this place while looking for iron weapons and armor for Talloran. This Orlanthi warrior has been just ordained runelord, but his temple no longer has the resources to provide him with iron armor and weapons, so he is searching some ancient tombs for it. However, their cultic duties and personality force them to stay in the nearby village longer than they had anticipated when they learn a monster is preying on the defenseless villagers.
If you read this after The Widow's Tale, it is cool to learn how the main characters got to the vale and met the others. It also gives some background to how Reha, the young Yelornan, got her unicorn. If you read it before The Widow's Tale, it is a tiny, gritty taste of what's coming next, and it works as a cool introduction to the main characters. At any rate, although the plot is simple, the story becomes more and more tense as it progresses, until it reaches a climax where the heroes face unexpected dangers. I particularly loved reading Love's descriptions of the villagers, of the Rune magic the characters cast, and how she plays with emotions to make a small epic out of a simple plot.
Down the River
The second short story is the longest in the book, and it has very different main characters and tone. While the first one is epic, but at a much lesser scale than The Widow's Tale, this one is humorous. Whereas the first one deals with heroes, this one follows the shenanigans of humble rogues, Dink the thief, Quackser the duck boatman, and Gy-Lopa the rank and file Lunar soldier, as they make their way through New Pavis and the Big Rubble. Since these two locations are well described in game sourcebooks, any RuneQuest and Glorantha fan will enjoy recognizing some of the places and seeing the characters interact with them and their denizens. The descriptions can also be helpful for GMs wishing to portray the city's feel in their games.
You can more or less follow the characters through the streets of New Pavis with the map in the Pavis sourcebook (not included!)
In this picaresque story, the three main characters are after a big reward for their own personal gain, and their temporal alliance is one made out of necessity rather than companionship. This is refreshing after the preceding gritty but heroic epic, and New Pavis, nicknamed the "The City of Thieves" is great as a backdrop. In fact, the picaresque short stories about Griselda are also set in New Pavis. Here the race for the prize will force the to face unexpected dangers and meet strange characters, and in the end, circumstances may end up revealing the true nature of the protagonists.
Although it is meant to be funny, it only made me smile, so do not expect to laugh out loud at the misadventures of the three characters. Still, it is a nice read if you are even passingly familiar with the setting. It is also cool how the initially comical characters become a bit heroic in the end, showing the epic of the small is equally epic. Finally, I loved seeing characters from The Widow's Tale appear in this farce, and I was surprised to learn that this was actually the first story the author wrote in which Talloran, Rulk, Shisanna, Arqua, and even Darlath-Lar ever made an appearance.
The Harrowing
This short story is also set in New Pavis, but it is way more serious. Although told by the usual third-person narrator as all the others, it focuses on the point of view of a unique character: the city's governor's young wife. Trapped in a life others have planned for her, this sad, sad character is going to be a pawn in the fight the local Orlanthi rebels wage against the Lunar forces occupying the city.
Despite the difference in tone from the previous tale, it follows nicely from it because it takes the theme of the freedom fighters you can see in the background of "Down the River" and puts it in the spotlight. However, Orlanthi and Lunars fight in a totally unusual battleground here. I love it you can see Talloran and Darlath-Lar again facing off in a way. But most of all, I love that Talloran's "feat" is a bit ambiguous, and it makes you wonder if his spite and revenge are justified. If the story had totally focused on him, he would clearly be the hero, but by shifting the focus towards Torys-Kineel, the ending left a bad taste in my mouth and thus made the story way better. I am looking forward to know if other readers agree with me.
Zebra and Wolf
This short story is the one I like the least in the book, because it is a strange, brief extra epilogue to the events described in The Widow's Tale. It is a dialogue between two children from the main characters in that other bigger story that shows how the personality and the background of their parents have filtered into their way of thinking. I guess the author wanted to see her character's heirs come to life through words and paint an innocent, cozy picture of how new life springs forth even after tragic events. Still, this story gets extra points precisely for focusing on Gloranthan children, something that you also get to see a bit in "Eurhol's Vale", which makes Glorantha more down-to-earth and believable.
All in all
All the stories in the book are entertaining, even more so if you are a fan of Glorantha. For those who do not know anything about the world, the book includes a short introduction at the back so they can follow who is who in the mythology. The plots are simple and lack any surprising twists, but it is a great book nonetheless if you enjoyed The Widow's Tale, because you can see how that story started, and it is written with style, love for the setting, and a great deal of sensitivity.
Eurhol's Vale & Other Tales should still be available from The Chaos Society website, where you can also purchase some of their Tradetalk fanzines focused on RuneQuest and other Chaosium games. Now the fanzines are also sold through DrivethruRPG in PDF. You can also find "The Harrowing" easily enough as it was also published in Tradetalk #8. Aside from that, you may find copies of the book on Ebay and other second-hand book stores online. Finally, I want to thank my friend Kenrae for lending me the book years ago. :-)
If you haven't done that yet, you can now read an interview to the author of the book: Penelope Love.
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