Elfsense, Niven in Glorantha, Stoopid DHs

From: James Frusetta <gerakkag_at_wam.umd.edu>
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 10:04:44 -0400 (EDT)

Marc Willner wrote:
>In the character creation rules for Aldryami in the Elder Races Book, it
>says that beginning elves get Elf Sence at 35%, but never describes it.
>Does anyone have any ideas.

There's actually a brief mention on page 30 of ES. "by touch [the elf can] detect the health and emotional state of the target and whether or not it is stressed or in pain. It also gives the elf details about soil..." Very useful for taking care of the elf forest, somewhat less useful for adventuring (could potentially be used to track, though, in some circumstances).

IMO, very powerful elves (shamans, heroes in the making) are able to obtain the same information for whole sections of the forest at a time, not limited by touch (there might be a ritual that briefly gives the same ability to less powerful elves). I always thought of it as an "emotional web" that the elf can monitor and examine; quite useful actually. Allows you to discover foreign intrusions in the forest, whether it be plants/ weeds not yet incorporated into the elf forest, fire, disease, or marauding trolls/dwarves. And makes attacking an elf forest even _more_ difficult. "Trolls in sector twelve! Scramble! Scramble!"

A Larry Niven short story can, once more, be used to good effect in Glorantha. Cool! (BTW, the girl did survive -- the kidnapper/body snatcher intentionally drove her insane to give himself a better cover. Brrrr....)

His other Organlegger stories might be similarly MGF. Say, in terms of chaotic nasties that can't be healed but _can_ take and use body parts from creatures they kill (sort of like a Charnjibber, I suppose, or a zombie that can just keep replacing body bits).

Pam Carlson wrote:
>"Bad Cops"?

Bad cops. Bad cops, bad cops. Whatcha gonna do when wanna lynch you?

> Loyal, justice-loving Dara Happans who obey all the standards of
> righteous purity by slaying the foul, people-eating Dijigelm?
I was thinking more along the lines of cowardly, bigoted mob-mentality DHs whose proper place in the universe under the trollish heel, meself. Not that either of us is taking sides, or anything. :)

> (Remember, some Pelorians still tell stories of the Darkness,
> when bands of DarkEaters roved through the land, *actually* hunting and
> eating people!)

Lemme get this straight. First, Orlanth cold-bloodedly offs the Emperor of the Universe in a brutal coup attempt. Said EotU flees to Wonderhome, displacing the natives in an attempt to build himself a new power base, mass-murdering those who oppose his evil and foreign rule and forcing the rest into becoming refugees. And the *uz* are the monsters? Pshaw. Uz are the *victims* of Gloranthan history.

Eating people is merely reparations for the ancient wrongs inflicted on the poor, defenseless uz long, long ago. *Sniff*.

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