(Message rqd:4) Return-Path:Received: from Holland.Sun.COM (sunnl) by homeland.Holland.Sun.COM (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA04446; Wed, 2 Jun 93 17:17:42 +0200 Received: from glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM by Holland.Sun.COM (4.1/SMI-4.1e) id AA23745; Wed, 2 Jun 93 17:17:29 +0200 Received: by glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA04800; Wed, 2 Jun 93 17:15:49 +0200 Date: Wed, 2 Jun 93 17:15:49 +0200 Message-Id: <9306021515.AA04800@glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM> 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, Wed, 02 Jun 1993, part 3 Precedence: junk Status: O 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 want to submit articles to the Digest only, contact the editor at RuneQuest-Digest-Editor@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM. Send enquiries and Subscription Requests to the editor: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Henk Langeveld) --------------------- From: f6ri@midway.uchicago.edu (charles gregory fried) Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 25 May 1993, part 2 Message-ID: Date: 2 Jun 93 01:33:39 GMT X-RQ-ID: 918 Hello all, this is Greg Fried again. I was inspired to put together a cult from my East Isles campaign to send in to the RQ Daily. SOme of the lines don't 'turn corners' -- sorry, I haven't mastered all the arts of e-mail. This is a 'Cult of Terror' -- I hope you enjoy it! [Well, tell me what computer you use, and maybe I can help. I just happened to have the time to re-format your text. -HL] Uralog The Mouth of the Deep, God of Sea Ghouls I. MYTHOS AND HISTORY "Each of us who lives from the generosity of Mother Sea and her bounteous inhabitants knows a certain occasional feeling -- an uneasy shuddering, an unnamed terror, at swimming in waters that seem to plunge to unfounded depths. In the Dreamtime, a nightmare came into the World during the Great Darkness that enfolded our ancestors. Uralog, The Mouth, surfaced from the uttermost Deep. Uralog is that terror." -- Parzenda, shaman of Obtoro's clan, Jana tribe, Aldin Island. A. BEFORE TIME BEGAN In the Golden Age, the Waters that surrounded lovely and perfect perimeter of Earth stretched outwards to the very winds that swirl at the edge of the World on the brink of the Chaos beyond. But the Waters reached down also, down to unimaginable depths. There too, at the uttermost edge, tremendous currents separate the World from Chaos. But when the cosmos underwent its awful stress during the Great Darkness, the rents in the fabric of Being ran down to these very depths as well. Chaos surged through, and one of its manifestations was Uralog, the Mouth of the Deep. The cravings of the Mouth soon became apparent. Appearing as a gigantic, churning whirlpool, it lusted to suck things of the surface world down to the deepest depths, from which they never returned. The Mouth began to eat away at the edge of the Earth herself, devouring the daughters and granddaughters of Gata and Ernalda. In the Chaos Wars, great regions were drawn below the sea and lost forever, sucked down the maw of Uralog, down the monster's winding gullet to the nothingness of Chaos below. Relief from this onslaught came only when Ezroth [an important god in my East Isles campaign], the god of Ocean Storm, son of Umath and Triolina, drove Uralog from the surface waters, severing his gullet from the Chaos below. But many lands were now permanently lost, or separated from Earth as islands and supported above the waves only by the sacrifice of Ezroth below, whom Earth lovingly thanks. And still, the Mouth lurks beneath the surface, yearning to gobble when it can. B. SINCE TIME BEGAN Not a deity much given to subtlety, Uralog has had little impact on events since its first horrific entrance into the World. But Time may yet again see a widespread return of this deity, and indeed, its worshipers prophesy the restoration of Uralog's gullet at the End of the World. C. LIFE AFTER DEATH Worshipers fervently hope to be buried at Sea, far out where the shelf of Land does not extend beneath the surface. They believe they will then sink endlessly, finally to be caught up in the maw of Uralog, perhaps to be turned into sea ghouls. D. RUNIC ASSOCIATIONS Uralog is associated with the Runes of Water, Chaos, and Undead. II. NATURE OF THE CULT A. REASON FOR CONTINUED EXISTENCE As long as a primordial fear of the vast depths of the Water remains among mortal races, Uralog will have power over those who drown. The MouthUs cult also possesses strange and fearsome magics which attract twisted mortal followers. B. SOCIAL/POLITICAL POSITION AND POWER Except when it thoroughly takes over an island, the cult rarely has any political power. Most sane societies abominate Uralog, destroying its worshipers wherever found. C. PARTICULAR LIKES AND DISLIKES The Mouth is a loner among the gods, even those of Chaos. It feels most comfortable amidst the undead. The cult loves to destroy Earth and its worshipers, and its mortal enemies are Ezroth and related cults. III. ORGANIZATION A. INTER-CULT ORGANIZATION Sometimes this cult gains political power over a large area. In such rare instances, a powerful high priest may gain dominance over inferior priests. When the cult has no such open dominion, relations between temples is tenuous. B. INTRA-TEMPLE ORGANIZATION Each temple is ruled by a single priest . Anyone may challenge this rule, but all losers in such a struggle are sacrificed to Uralog. C. CENTER OF POWER, HOLY PLACES By its nature, the Mouth resides in the fathomless depths of the Ocean, and thus has no localized place of worship -- 'places' are a thing of the Earth and something that Uralog is bent on destroying. Nevertheless, there are island and coastal areas upon which the Mouth left marks of its passing, and these are sacred to the cult. Sharkthrow Cleft, a chasm separating Dry and Hellet islands in the Bansora archipelago is such a place. D. HOLY DAYS AND HIGH HOLY DAYS Weekly: Wildday; seasonally: Death week; high holy day: Sea Season. IV. Nibblers (Initiates) There are two methods of being initiated into the cult of Uralog. The first is when a mortal being is on the verge of drowning and prays to Uralog: on a roll equal to POW as a %, that person dies and is 'saved' as sea ghoul. The second method can be practiced by the still-living. Like many Chaos cults, this one is also highly secretive, and carefully screens and recruits worshipers. Candidates must pass a test abstracted as STR+CON+POW as percentages, plus Swim divided by 5%, plus man-catcher skill divided by 5%, plus 5% for each sacrificial victim brought to the cult. Failure in this test means being sacrificed to Uralog. Nibblers may hear the howls of ghouls without fear, and even associate with these undead horrors without being attacked out of hand. Nibblers are taught swim and man-catcher skills for free, when the teachers have time. Nibblers may gain one-use divine magic, and may, with a priest's ritual assistance, cast Create Ghoul upon themselves. The cult forbids light and fire spells. All cultists must learn the cult spell Detect Sentient Life. Special Cult Skill: The cult instructs members in the use of the cult specialty weapon, the man-catcher (special damage; STR/DEX: -/9; Enc: 2; BS: 5%; AP: 10; SR 1). This pole arm has a horseshoe shaped head whose two prongs, which have inward barbs, come close to meeting. At the base of this head, is a blade protruding from the head of the shaft. The weapon does a meagre d6 of damage on a hit. But on a special success, the two prongs are flexible, and the opponent will be caught in the "mouth" between the two arms and prevented from escaping by the barbs (DEX x 1% to escape; failure results in d4 damage on the barbs, and the Mouth cultist gets to roll an attack to see if this damage is a critical to avoid armor). The attacker may then attempt to force the captive down (STR + man-catcher skill divided by 4 vs. SIZ +DEX), or stab at the snared victim with the point that protrudes between the arms (d6+1, and can impale) at double attack %, and the victim may only dodge at one half skill. This weapon is used to capture sacrificial victims. Special Cult Spirit Magic: Detect Sentient Life. Ranged, Temporal Active. This spell will operate like a Detect Enemies spell, except it finds any living creature with free intelligence. V. Chompers (Acolytes) The initiate must have been a Nibbler for at least one season and must bring at least one sacrificial victim before the cult. He must have 90% in one of the skills required of a Gobbler (see below). VI. Gobblers (Rune Lords) A candidate for Rune Lord status must have been a Chomper for at least one year and have a POW of 15. He must bring five victims for sacrifice to Uralog. He must have 90% skill in man-catcher, plus 90% in four more of the following skills (being a ghoul counts for one of these): weapon attack, weapon or shield parry, missile weapon, hide, sneak, swim, boat, shiphandling. VII. Mouths (Priests) An acolyte may become a Mouth in one of two ways, and first he must possess a POW of 18 and 5 points of divine magic. Either the Chomper must challenge and defeat the current temple priest, or he must succeed in a Ceremony skill on the high holy day and then move away to form his own temple. Uralog divine magic: all common divine spells (including Find Water, Find Corpse, Summon Undine) except Heal Wound, plus special spells Howl, Drown, Create Ghoul, Whirlpool, Summon Mouth, Devour Earth, Command Undine, Command Ghoul. Special Cult Divine Magic: Undines: Uralog's cult summons vile, polluted undines. They cannot purify water. When attacking any being attached by nature or cult to the Earth Rune, the undine acts as an acid of potency equal to one third the elemental's POW. Attacks from Storm based magic does double damage to these befouled undines. Howl: 1 point; Ranged, Temporal, Nonstackable, Reusable. Grants the caster the power to Howl like a ghoul (qv. RQ III Creatures Book). (Initiates of the cults of Ezroth, Aethellin and Varla -- gods who defeated Uralog in the Mythtime -- are immune to this spell.) Drown: 1 point; Ranged, Temporal, Nonstackable, Reusable. See the Wachaza spell in Gods of Glorantha. Does 1D8 of damage to the chest of any air-breathing target who is overcome. The Breathe Water spell makes a target immune to this spell. Create Ghoul: 2 points; Ritual, Nonstackable, Reusable. This spell may be cast on a willing or unwilling target. The target must be drowned either ritually on a cult holy day or by a cult undine. If cast on an unwilling victim, the caster must overcome the dying target's POW. If the attack is successful, the victim becomes a ghoul in the caster's service; if this attack fails, the spell is lost as a reusable spell and must be sacrificed for again. The caster may apply this spell to himself in a dying moment, if he is in water, and so become a ghoul himself. Whirlpool: 2 points; Ranged, Temporal, Nonstackable, Reusable. This spell must be coupled with a Summon Undine spell. It then creates a swirling vortex which sucks victims below with the strength of the appropriate Undine. Summon Mouth: 3 points; Ritual, Temporal, Nonstackable, Reusable. This spell brings into being a gaping void in which anything sacrificed or thrown is lost forever. It can only be summoned and placed at the bottom of a Whirlpool summoned by the cult divine spell. The void is about one meter/yard across. (If a cultist succeeds in a Ceremony skill while tossing a victim into the Mouth, Uralog will grant the cultist 1/10th of the victim's POW (rounding down) in Magic Points over and above the cultist's normal MPs. The cultist can retain these extra MPs only if on each cult holy day he sacrifices an equal amount of temporary POW and succeeds with a Ceremony skill. Ghoul cultists employ this gift of the god to keep unbody and unsoul together! The cultist may wish to waive this benefit when engaged in the Devour Earth ritual.) Devour Earth: 3 points; Ritual, Nonstackable, Non-reusable. This spell is non-standard in many ways. It is employed by the cult to destroy Earth. Practically, this may only be done to islands. The ritual is elaborate. When using the spell Devour earth, the priest must also create a sacrificial alter by casting Summon Undine, Whirlpool and Summon Mouth. Each casting of these spells in conjunction with the Devour Earth renders them one-use, but the alter will remain in place until the ritual is completed -- but if the alter is destroyed, the ritual is ruined. For the Devour Earth to succeed, the priest must sacrifice a minimum of 1000 points of POW of living, sentient beings to Uralog for every square mile of land to be swallowed up; this land must be one unit, ie, the spell cannot swallow part of an island or continent -- it must go for the whole thing. Initiates of Earth cults confer three times their POW when sacrificed for the ritual, acolytes five times, and rune levels ten times. Earth cult artifacts sacrificed also aid the ritual, at the GM's discretion. As the ritual builds, a band of water surrounding the island will get progressively choppier and more disturbed. When sufficient POW has been sacrificed, the priest must succeed in a Ceremony roll, and then this band of water will rise up in a gigantic tidal wave and engulf the island! Such a drowned island becomes "ghoulish". (Uralog cannot utterly annihilate Land, since Ezroth severed his gullet in Mythtime.) All life upon such land must resist the POW of the priest, or become ghoulishly undead upon drowning in the ensuing flood. The whole place radiates the mark of chaos. All ghouls produced are subject to the priest's control. No plant life will grow unless watered with blood. Even if the cult is wiped out on such an island, it will remain a dead, chaotic land until it is taken over and thoroughly purified by Earth cults. VIII. SUBSERVIENT CULTS A. SPIRIT OF REPRISAL Depending on the gravity of their transgression, cultists who displease the mouth may be attacked by the Little Mouths, which operate as standard spirits of reprisal. These manifest themselves as small whirlpools with gaping holes beneath them which engulf the apostate. Very serious offenders may be attacked by a Whirlpool or even a Summon Mouth spell sent by the deity. IX. ASSOCIATED CULTS The only associated cult is Primal Chaos, which grants use of the divine spell Chaos Gift. X. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES A. Sea Ghouls The undead creatures created by this cult are standard, except that they have slightly webbed hands and feet and swim about quite happily (MR 5). Their undead, grey flesh is sleek and glossy, and will not rot if they keep themselves well fed. They take double damage from the magics of the Ezroth, Aethellin and Varla cults [gods in my campaign]. I hope that wasn't too long! -- Greg --------------------- From: davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au (David Cake) Subject: Cute idea for sorcery in RQ4 Message-ID: <9306020358.AA25117@cs.uwa.edu.au> Date: 2 Jun 93 04:05:19 GMT X-RQ-ID: 919 I strongly feel that sorcery in RQ4 should be compatible with RQ3, to the extent that existing powerful sorcerers remain powerful, that spells do the same thing as they did before - or at least do similar things and have the same name. However, I have just thought of a reasonable way to add the spontaneous formulaic dichotomy that people like from Ars Magica without changing the rules, only adding to them. Unfortunately this makes sense only to people with RQ4, but here it is anyway. We already have the concepts in the skill system of inclusive skills, and complementary skills. Ie acting includes mimicry, acrobatics includes balance and armory is a complementary skill to bargaining when bargaining about armour. Why not implement the skills necessary for 'formulaic' spells in this manner. For play bablance they would be hard or very hard magic skills, and thus very difficult to get to high levels in, but they would be pretty nifty. Some examples - Fred the Fire mage has general Fire magic at 70%. This includes animate fire and manipulate fire, so he has those at 70% automatically, and can use them freely. He meets an unusual fire spirit, and the GM asks him to make a spirit Lore roll, but with Fire Magic as a complementary skill. He attacks it, and tells the GM he wishes to cast a spell to cause it to stop buring so hot. The Gm tells him that this is Smother, a spell he doesn't have. So he must improvise on the spot. He makes a Fire Magic roll, he makes an Intx3 roll (for concentrating in combat), and takes two actions to formulate the spell. He suceeds, and attacks with a special Smother attack that works only versus Fire creatures (and for this creature, causes it to burn less brightly). A poweful healer has Life magic. She knows no particular spell to ward against poison, but want to help her friend. The GM may allow her Life magic skill to act as a complementary skill to her treat poison, if she uses some MPs in various charms. He may also allow her to attempt to create a special purpose spell useful against the Scorpion venom, utilising parts of the dead Scorpion man nearby, if she asks him in appropriate terms. Just two examples - and not meant to show how such a system would necessarily work, just to convey the flavour. I would probably guess that such skills would be hard skills for Elemental Rune magic, and very hard for Power Rune magic, though possibly only medium for possible Form Rune Magic. In any case, I welcome input on how to add this nifty complication to the existing Sorcery rules, and I think perhaps that I'll write it up and send it to Oliver as a suggestion for RQ4. Much as I liked previous attempts at fancy sorcery systems, they lacked the compatibility with RQ3 that I think is essential if RQ4 is to suceed. The current situation of a spilt between RQ2 and RQ3 is bad enough. When RQ4 appears, we want to get all the RQ3 players and most of the RQ2 players (I'd say all, but I'm a realist) playing it. To do this we need to keep at least the outward form of RQ3 sorcery, even if we change mechanics wuite a bit. RQ3 is one example of a revision that spit its market. A D&D 2 is another (many people I know play A D & D 1.5). Shadowrun 2 is a ve example, it was almost completely compatible world wise, and character wise, its just that the mechanics were much better. That should be one of the main aims of RQ4 (which I think Oliver, Ken, etc. realise). I think my sorcery idea provides a reasonable example of a way to add significantly to the mechanics, but still remain back compatible. It also adds a possible way to add in such mechanics as spell research, special magic itme creation, and other stuff, if we want it, later. I also think it would give sorcerers a bit more 'depth' on heroquests etc. without taling away the 'scientist-magician' flvour. So what do people think? Dave Cake --------------------- From: 100270.337@CompuServe.COM (Nick Brooke) Subject: Characteristics and Runes Message-ID: <930602074401_100270.337_BHB65-1@CompuServe.COM> Date: 2 Jun 93 07:44:01 GMT X-RQ-ID: 920 Based on the "Birth of Aether" myth, I tried to put the stats in a developmental order. Excuse me if I wax whimsical below. Caveat: I do not believe there is "One True Way" and am delighted to have my theories disputed. But nothing I've read has yet changed my mind one jot or tittle... Life = POW What defines a living creature, other than that it has a POW? Life is, after all, a Power Rune. I'd postulate other species, indeed peculiar heroes, who could use different Runes as their source of Power, but that's way out of my (tough-initiate level) league. Darkness = CON (not STR) Constitution reflects your basic health. If you're an infant in the womb, after life you have health before you can do anything else. High CON makes you fat (like Trolls, creatures of Darkness). Trollkin are plausibly more "unhealthy" than weak, if I'm to argue against you on your own terms. Add Darkness to a base human and he becomes a fat lazy slob: I've met some. Darkness per se. has no "physicality". Water = DEX (not CON) The image of the eternally moving sea as the changing principle of Glorantha inspired this one. Along with "fluid movements", "running water", and the link in GoG between Sea deities and the Coordination spirit spell. That's the baby moving inside you. Earth = SIZ "The element of solidity and definite shape. More Earth means more material substance." We're agreed on this one. You can see the bulge in the mother's belly by now... Fire = INT (not APP) One of the basic oppositions of Glorantha is between Yelmic Civilisation and Orlanthi Barbarism. Now, I find that better simulated by the clash of Intellect against Brute Strength, rather than that of foppish Appearance against swift Dexterity. Lankhor Mhy's beloved is the Mistress of the Light of Knowledge. Yelm defeats Orlanth because he knows how to behave. Birds look lovely because they are the pinnacle of Creation: Storm-Rune mammals followed after the perfection of the Golden Age had been broken. You tell me, "Fire was never broken." I tell you, Orlanth killed Yelm wielding Humakt, the Sword of Death. How badly broken can you get? The child is born, and comes out into the light of the world. It opens its eyes... Air = STR (not DEX) The primaeval Storm myth has Umath exerting his strength to rip the world apart. Orlanth teaches the Spirit spell of Strength. If you're about to exert yourself, you breathe deeply, filling your lungs for the effort. The baby does this, wails loudly, and starts to break things... Moon = nothing (not INT) Your explanation nicely explains why there will be no Lunar characteristic until the White Moon is healed. It does not explain why the existing moons should have the attribute of INT. Maybe the White Moon characteristic would be Rationality, or Balance, rather than Intelligence? But then, I don't believe that the Lunars have *yet* added something new to all creation, so I didn't want to put them on everyone's character sheets. Man = APP Appearance is a measure of whether or not you look like a perfect human being. We know that other species have different standards of beauty, while non-human ones are not rated for APP at all. Maybe elven APP is based on the Plant Rune; maybe you could roll a Beast Rune APP to work out how fine your horse looked... Must dash off to work! Nick