<< One was that the head was supposed to hold the soul, and to be a source of power. This applied as much to your own side as it did to the enemy: the hero (god?) Bran, dying, instructed his followers to bury his head facing out to sea as a means of repelling invaders. >>
GURPS Celtic Myth explains that the best thing to do with severed heads is hang them around your door, put them on gate posts, etc. The Celts apparently believed that the heads would then cry out if an enemy approached - - quite what the head's motivation for doing this was, I have no idea. Mind you, the very best heads you had collected were kept safely embalmed in a box, so you could show them off at social functions to prove your prowess.
Alas, it has no information on the limed-brains-as-a-slingstone concept. I believe that the more closely related you were to the deceased, the more damage it would do to you. In game terms, this is presumably a variant of the 'Bless Thunderstone' divine magic spell. It would cost more points than the usual spell, say 3 points. However, the effective amount would depend on who you hit with it. So, if it was just Joe Orlanthi with no knowledge of the deceased, it would count as a 1-point Thunderstone*, but if he's the son of the deceased it counts as a 6-point stone*. And there would be a sliding scale in between: Tribe<Clan<Bloodline<Family, that sort of thing. So you can get lots of 'free' damage out of it, but only if you know exactly who to clobber.
Foward the glorious Red Army!
Trotsky
Powered by hypermail