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Date: Tue, 25 May 93 17:15:33 +0200
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From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily)
Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 25 May 1993, part 2
Precedence: junk
Status: OR

The RuneQuest Daily and RuneQuest Digest deal with the subjects of
Avalon Hill's RPG and Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha.

Send submissions and followup to "RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM",
they will automatically be included in a next issue.  Try to change the
Subject: line from the default Re: RuneQuest Daily...  on replying.

Selected articles may also appear in a regular Digest.  If you 
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RuneQuest-Digest-Editor@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM.

Send enquiries and Subscription Requests to the editor:

RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Henk Langeveld)

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From: paul@phyast.pitt.edu
Subject: Re: Botany
Message-ID: <9305251331.AA04576@bondi.phyast.pitt.edu>
Date: 25 May 93 13:31:20 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 874


  Paul R. here.  A tidbit I am working on, comments invited.  Note that
their is a bit at the end which is only included for Netters.


QUAKING VINES

  Pamaltelan plant life includes a family of vines that are capable of 
limited movement which are collectively referred to as Quaking Vines.
Most vines are ordinary plants incapable of such movement.

Trap Vines
  These vines grow in a tangle between great trees and are capable of 
a sudden contraction which is triggered by sensitive hairs that can
detect when an animal is trying to work its way through the vines.  Once
the contraction is triggered the vine will hold on with stickers and
a vise like grip, possibly trapping the animal.  For game purposes
treat this as a grapple attack to immobilize with a skill and strength
depending on the age and size of the vine.  The initial contraction
of larger vines will also do one point of damage to all unprotected hit 
locations from abrasion.  Most of these vines prey on monkeys, birds, and
rodents but some travellers report seeing very large creatures suspended in
a web of monster vines.

>From the vine's point of view the idea is to trap the animal and thus the
precious nutrients contained in the animal's body.  If the animal strangles,
starves, or is trapped the greedy vines grow rootlets into its body to
leach out those nutrients.  Intelligent creatures can often free themselves
with some work or if they have friends.

  Aldryami often employ these vines in their defenses, and are able to
grow them into clever traps using their Devise and Plant Lore skills.

Sleeper vines

  These are probably related to Trap Vines but employ a slow and subtle
motion to entrap sleeping animals.  (Sleeping creatures should roll their
Touch skill or POW * 5% to determine if the slow moving vines wake them.)
Armor or clothing subtracts its ENC from the chance to wake up.  A failure
indicates entrapment as with Trap Vines, a fumble indicates that the
creature is so completely entrapped as to require outside assistance
to escape.  A special or critical success indicates waking at the first
touch and the waker may easily rescue any companions who are being overgrown.

Both Sleeper and Trap vines have evolved to appear as ordinary vines so as to 
fool monkeys or similarly intelligent animals who are aware of the existence 
of such hazards.

Quaking vines
  Quaking vines mimic the appearance of Trap vines but grow in areas richer
in nutrients.  They jerk when touched but are not powerful enough to trap
animals.  Their movement is thought to serve the function of protecting
them from herbivores.  They give their name to the entire family.

Writhing Vines

  These vines occasionally writhe like snakes, possibly to discourage 
herbivores or to brush themselves free of feeding insects.


Message Vines
  Of all Quaking Vines, these have the most subtle motion.They carry a 
vibration which cannot generally be seen but which can be detected by the 
human sense of touch as an irregular buzzing.  The superior Aldryami touch 
sense can however discern intricate patterns to the buzzing which may carry 
meaning in the Aldryami touch-language.

  These vines may grow to be kilometers long and they will repeat vibrations
that they pick up at special pods which grow on the vine.  The vibrations
travel at over 100 kilometers per hour.  The Yellow Elves of the jungles
use these vines as a system of rapid communication, employing specially
trained Runners to put messages in at the pods.  By linking together
the tendrils of one vine with the pods of another, a network of vines
can be built up spanning hundreds of kilometers.  It is thought that
during the period of Errinoru's Empire that all the jungles of Pamaltela
were interlinked by such a network, but currently each elf 'nation' has
its own separate system.  However, important messages can be carried by
hand between different systems and thus emergency messages can cross the
width of Pamaltela in little more than a day.

  There are several drawback to the system.  Message sometimes get distorted
or lost.  Perhaps most importantly, the vines will repeat whatever they
'hear' and spread it throughout the network, so that only one clear message
can be carried at a time.  Typically the system is used only for announcements
of Aldryami ruling councils or emergency messages (fires, invasions, etc.)
If multiple messages arrive at once, they  may be irretrievably garbled. 
Care must be taken to avoid repeating loops and echoes.

  Some sophisticated areas will have a royal network hundreds of kilometers
in extent and many local networks to carry local messages.  This avoids
overloading the large area network.  Elves have a largely non-coercive
society, so that anyone may go to a pod and have a message sent, but the
Runner who operates the pod will explain that the message will be carried
to hundreds of message vines, costing many calories to send, and will ask
if the elf initiating the message is really sure that he wants to do this.




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From: jackal@eta.pha.jhu.edu (Philip Hammar x8530)
Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Fri, 21 May 1993, part 2
Message-ID: <9305251349.AA24479@eta.pha.jhu.edu>
Date: 25 May 93 05:49:18 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 875

> 
> From: stanley@plains.NoDak.edu (Brian Stanley)
> >From: curtiss@netcom.com (Curtis Shenton)
> > Well if the White Moon will someday rise as it's predicted it seems
> > Glorantha will have to offer up the missing piece, the Green Moon! 
> 
> Sorry, green isn't the last primary color.  Yellow is.  But why not,
> green comes in lots more icky putrified shades...
> 

	Another "sorry."  When using light to reproduce color (called
an additive process), the three primaries are red, green, and blue
(that's what the RGB on your color monitor stand for). Even in
printing with ink (or coloring with crayon or chalk, a subtractive
process), the three primaries are cyan, magenta, and yellow.

	Of course, that's only how it works here; your mileage may
vary in your Glorantha.

			Have a good one,
			Phil