Colleges of Magic: Ritual Magics from Owen Jones on 1998-01-13 (Glorantha Digest Vol 05)

From: Owen Jones <oj_at_maths.anu.edu.au>
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 12:21:54 +1100 (EST)

Have been thinking about some ritual magic close (if not dear) to the heart of your average overworked Lunar college mathemagician.

MAGIC GRANT (Ritual)

A six month ritual is required for this spell, and even then it only has a 20% chance of succeeding. The main content of the ritual is the preparation of a convincing hymn of praise for every Lunar magician working in your field, irrespective of how outlandish their beliefs. Omission of a single colleague not only guarantees the spell will fail, but that you will be teaching first year classes for the next ten years.

If you are successful (roll a die to check success) then you receive a grant, but must also take a geas. The grant invariably takes the form of a large supply of one use magic points, which must be spent according to a budget prepared as part of the ritual. Of course, none of these magic points may be used for personal gain, or indeed for anything directly useful. The associated geas always varies, but is generally along the lines of "never buy a new tweed jacket", "always wear socks with sandals", "affect an outlandish foreign custom" or "only wash on Sundays".

Owen Jones
Centre for Maths and its Applications, School of Math. Sciences Australian National University, ACT 0200 Ph +61 2 6249 2897 (office) 6249 4552 (direct) Fax +61 2 6249 4675 Web page http://wwwmaths.anu.edu.au/~oj/