Bell Digest v940814p2

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To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
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Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Sun, 14 Aug 1994, part 2
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From: ddunham@radiomail.net (David Dunham)
Subject: Heroic Abilities in East Ralios
Message-ID: <199408140257.AA04065@radiomail.net>
Date: 14 Aug 94 02:57:03 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5686

David Cake asked
>        Bearing in mind that the Sartarites are often compared to the
>Celts, and that Jumping is a favoured skill of the Orlanthi, I think it
>would be quite likely that one heroic feat used by the wilder Orlanthi
>warriors would be a mighty leap, like the Red Branch Warriors feat of the
>Salmon Leap, from Irish legend.
>        Anyone like the idea of Orlanthi being fond of heroic leaping? 
>... Would
>they just need to find a heroic Wind Lord to teach them (perhaps a sub-cult
>that teaches the mighty leap?) or is there some sor of minor heroquest?

What a leading question.

In my East Wilds, each Orlanthi clan has a heroic ability, and a
corresponding geas.

Each year, the clan thane, with the help of clan members, reenacts a
heroquest which originally gained the clan their ability. Once during the
following year, each clan member can use the ability. The thane, who
actually performed the heroquest, can use it more often (I haven't decided
how often). Occasionally, the heroquest fails, and nobody can use the
ability until next Sacred Time when the heroquest is successfully
reenacted.

Women (who marry outside the clan) have the option each year of attending
their new clan's heroquest, and gaining that ability, or travelling back to
their original clan and gaining that ability. Regardless, they have to
maintain both geases.

The geas is very important -- if you break it, you can never use the clan
ability again.

Here are some of the heroic abilities (described in PenDragon Pass terms):

Alynx Leap
Jump up to Valorous in metres, up to half may be vertical. Geas: never
refuse a challenge from a troll. ("Arkat . was preparing for the Thunder
Mountain Jump" [JC.xvi])

Battle Shout
Intimidates opponents - all must make Valorous or be at -2 skill. Geas:
never refuse a challenge in Damali lands.

Cat's Walk
Allows successful Stealth, no Awareness roll possible. Geas: Never kill a cat.

Chariot Jump
Lets the chariot jump over obstacles.

Cobra Strike
Gives first attack (roll unopposed). Geas: Never own a cloak longer than a year.

Evade
Can be used to escape battle, or more heroically, to penetrate the first ranks.

Far Fling
Triples range of a javelin. Usually combined with other missile magic.

Great Shout
This can start avalanches ("Arkat gave a Great Shout which stunned them
all, and a rock dislodged from the ceiling and crushed the skull of Zernian
Aselbos, the High Priestess of the Blue Moon." [JC.xv]) Geas: never refuse
a challenge in Corolaland.

Invisibility
The user is not truly invisible, but is seen as deer or some other
misdirection. Geas: never fight a fox.

Wind Riding
Can be carried along by a breeze. If the breeze dies, you fall. Geas: never
attack an eagle.

Yoke Riding
While on a chariot yoke, ignore the knockback from a blow. Geas: Never
attack from behind.

There's more, but I don't have lots of detail on most of them.

It's possible that Alynx Leap is really a Mastakos ability (Chariot Jump
obviously is), in which case the clan thane would have to be a Mastakos
initiate; the clan members wouldn't have to be initiates of Mastakos (tho
they have to be initiated adults to participate in the heroquest).

I believe that many of the Vesmonstran clans have heroic abilities as well,
but it's probable that those who are adopting Henotheistic ways are losing
their ability. On the other hand, they'd no longer have to worry about
their geases.

The inspiration for all this comes from Greg's talk at RQ-Con 1 where he
described how heroquesters could gain abilities for their clan, reading
Celtic sagas, seeing the game Earthdawn (which had abilities obviously
derived from Celtic sagas), and noticing that several of the Ralian
notables described in the Glorantha box have abilities derived from the
Celtic sagas. And the Hargovan clan of Vesmonstran has the ability to
breathe fire...

Here's a player handout:

The Belovaking have the heroic ability of Fireblood. You can make your
blood boil and steam, healing up to your Honor in hit points. This will not
eliminate a Major Wound, however. You must follow the geas, never
extinguish a fire. You can use this ability once in the year following
attendance at a Sacred Time reenactment of the heroquest which Kilti
Cloudrider first performed to gain the ability for the clan.

Paul Reilly asked
>  Has anyone else done much with totems?  Wolverine and White Bear have
>been important in our campaigns.

It's probably not obvious from the above, but many of the geases associated
with clan abilities relate to a specific animal, which was likely the
clan's totem (I've seen this called "hsunchari" in old Greg documents)
before they became Orlanthi.

Alex wonders about my statement
>> Sure! In Jonas Schiott's/my East Ralios, people yell "Arkat!" when they
>> stub their toe or discover that their cows have been stolen.
>
>To shoot off at a tangent, when you say "East" Ralios, where exactly do
>you have in mind?  In particular, over how wide an area are you suggesting
>an anti-Arkat attitude might be prevalent?  (Yeah, I know, he's not riotously
>popular in the West either, but let's leave those worms temporarily recanned.)

East Ralios is the local term for what's called "East Wilderness" in the
Glorantha book. I can't picture people as saying "Yes, I live in the
Wilderness, just like my father before me and his father before that and
.." Arkat trashed the place, betrayed the humans, and installed troll
rulers. Long enough ago that nobody remembers the details. Besides, the
neighbors (trolls, Naskorion) revere Arkat, so the Orlanthi don't. Jonas
can probably give you more detail on the historical reasons.


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From: CHEN190@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (Peter Metcalfe, CAPE Canty)
Subject: Communal Rune Magic.
Message-ID: <01HFWKVO3HCUECZB2F@csc.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: 15 Aug 94 03:55:01 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5687

Colin watson wrote 

>What we need is a new magic system for non-personal communal divine magic.

I like this idea and have a proposeal which should keep changes minimal.

My idea is this:

The Temple defense spells provide an appropiate mechanism.  There you have 1 pt
of rune magic per 100 people and it regenerates daily.  I suggest that this
change to all spells for whatever reason.

Thus a Chalana Arroy healer instead of churning out Runespells and praying for
them would simply cast a three hour ceremony to ressurrect someone and the
temple would regain it three days later.  The Bless crops would only be a one
hour ceremony which would start from the temple to the fields to be blessed. 
this allows the Priests to concentrate on learning personal divine magic.  This
would force the farmers to group closer together but who cares.

The choice of what spells to perform comes into the hands of the Ruling Priest
which makes that job more sought after.

As the rule makes no distinction between reusuable and one-use spells, this
would mean cultural quirks like in the Lunar Empire, you don't go to the
chalana Arroy temple but to the Deezola or Yelm temple which are likely to be
more numerous.

Comments?

Peter Metcalfe

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From: MOBTOTRM@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au
Subject: G'day!
Message-ID: <01HFVC7KLPVA98H9UL@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au>
Date: 14 Aug 94 04:26:17 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5672

G'day Everybody,

I've been meaning to post to the Daily in the fortnight since I got back
from Convulsion, but I've been too damn jet-lagged (why do international
airlines assume economy class passengers are all 4'3" or less?) and then
too damn busy to do more than lurk on the RQ Daily these last two weeks.

I really had a great time in Old Blighty, thanks in a large extent to the
unstintingly generous hospitality of our Pommie hosts.  Big thanks
to David Hall, Kevin Jacklin, Oliver Dickinson, Lewis & Karen (& Jamie)
Jardine, Nick Brooke, Carl Pates, Dan Barker and everyone else who
made us feel welcome and plied us with warm grog.

Convulsion was great!  In particular, How the West Was One was a hoot!  My
character, Theoblanc the Pious, Ecclessiarch of Rokarism, attained his
glorious assumption into Solace near the end - the King of Seshnela was 
heard to exclaim, "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" and one of his
knights obliged!  I also had Smother cast on me during my sermon, aged
prematurely at one point (several of my bishops thought I'd been Tapped)
and had to pawn the Holy Ankle Bone of St Mardron to the Vadeli to satisfy
my craving for fresh oysters!  The Holy Monk Notslor - Ken Rolston in a
rather-too-small-sheet - also condemned me as anathema, which was rather
churlish of him as I had earlier proclaimed him as a Living Saint!  I had
to grant *myself* a special Indulgence for forgiveness of all sin to get
out of that one!  I heartily this freeform for those of you planning on
attending RQ Con II, and my the Holy Church of Rokarism do a lot better
under someone else's guidance than it did under mine!

The Live Action Trollball was a great success also, with four teams and
plenty spectators.  We ended up playing two games, followed by a winner-
takes-all-no-Healing-demolition-derby that had injured trolls crawling
all over the field trying to bop each other.  There was a wide array of
inflata
table weapons, the most spectacular being a 7 foot long banana.  The
pre-match weapons test, in which the players whack themselves repeatedly
over the head for 3 minutes (to show their weapons are safe), was fun
(to watch), but the highlight had to be the personal duel fought 
apres-match by Alex Ferguson and Joerg to settle their long-running
dispute on the Daily!  No doubt we can arrange similar bouts at future
cons...

Highlights of the trip: business class on the way over (my mum works for
an airline!), cycling to White Horse Hill, Spit Bank Fort in the Solent
(deserted, spooky), going into a barrow at 11pm (*occupied*, spooky!),
the abnormally warm summer, Penny's book selling for 45 quid, Nelson's 
Victory, York Minster, Oliver Dickinson's backyard, Nick Brooke's cat, 
Scrumpy cider, more, more,  more!

Lowlights: Getting hopelessly lost on bikes in Swindon, getting hopelessly 
lost on foot in Haxby, the Burger King near Kevin's, not being able to get 
a decent cup of tea anywhere in England, Penny's 3 quid cup of coffee,
my rude introduction to fare evasion on the Underground, fried bread 
(I discovered to my disgust that it is actually *bread* that has 
been *fried*, yechh!)...


And now to some RQ Daily matters:

_________________
RQ Con Compendium

Dave Cheng announces:
>After an interminably long delay, the _RuneQuest-Con Compendium_ is 
>finally 
>others can make a more informed buying decision.

Buy this Book!  Convulsioneers who were accosted by a pair 
of hard-sell Aussies in "Jar Eel Assassin" t-shirts at the merchandise 
stand might recall that we said if you're a Glorantha freak on a limited
budget, this is the book for you!

Dave, please add Nils Hammer to the freebie list: we sat up late on Saturday
night and rewrote the rules for Live Action Trollball, and he made a fine
giant referee that chilly morning after.  (Boy, LATB is much more
pleasant on a croquet lawn in the English Summer, even if the crowd don't
get to throw snowballs at the players!)

_____________________
The Only Old One Inc.

Joerg Laments:
>Are you sure? You're blasting a number of fine theories about both  
>the OOO and the Pharaoh.

Sandy Deftly Points Out:
>>Sorry. But think of all the NEW amazing theories that you'll  
>>be able to come up with. 
...and I bet it won't take Joerg long either!

>>Note that the OOO being an office may only apply to the First  
>>Age, though I personally doubt it. I don't think that the wielder of  
>>the office inherits his predecessors' memories, because that makes  
>>him too much like the Red Emperor and the Pharaoh.

Ah! My story, "The Lord Awakens", which I read out at an informal 
gathering late on Sunday night at Convulsion (after way too much Scrumpy!),
touches on this matter in the case of the The King himself, the Red Emperor.
Just how much one Red Emperor remembers of his predecessor is left
deliberately amibiguous.

__________________
Familiar Strangers

klaus@diku.dk asks:

>How can Maculus have INT 18 after creating a familliar from
>a fixed INT creature? Note BTW that these mini wyverns are
>good familliars because of their long lifespan. Whoever
>wrote the Maculus description does not agree that a familliar
>will live indefinitely.

I'm responsible for the Maculus description.  The Create Familiar spell
description says that beings made into familiars are "permanently 
embodied", but also notes that familiars can die (and gives an example).
I take "permanently embodied" to mean that the sorceror doesn't have to
plough magic points into his familiar each week just to keep its spirit
on the material plane, rather than prolonging its lifespan forever.
Because creating a familiar is such a costly investment, sorcerors
naturally choose subjects that are durable; hence the attraction of
inanimate objects (despite the even greater outlay of characteristics).

Yeah, Maculus has an INT of 18 AND a familiar from a fixed INT creature.
This is because he must have had an INT of 19 *before* creating the
familiar.  No wonder he's such a smart-arse know-it-all with a natural
intolerance for the modestly educated.  I've no idea how he upped his
INT to 19, except that he had about 110 years before he made his familiar
(thanks to the Church of Immortality) to find a way...

[On the topic of Strangers in Prax, I think the bloke on the back cover is
a dead ringer for a certain semi-retired Rune Czar, but for the brown
instead of white hair]

_____________
Smoking Grass

There has been some debate about how fast grass grows (and about as 
exciting):

>David Cordes
>>Exactly which US Prairies are you finding this 2-3m grass?
>>        In MOB's defense, I have seen plots of "native prairie" in  
>>the midwest which I was told during the height of summer and fall had  
>>grass well over six-feet tall...

Thanks for leaping to my defense so readily
 Sandy, but I haven't contributed
anything to this topic.

_________________

That's all for now.  Those of you basking in the warm summer up there may
not believe it, but I'm now off skiing for the weekend!

Cheers

MOB

 

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From: Argrath@aol.com
Subject: Sour beer and other windy things
Message-ID: <9408131322.tn1051769@aol.com>
Date: 13 Aug 94 17:22:16 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5677

Re: Beer spirits
     I'm gonna be like Sandy today (or is it someone else?), and
haphazardly attribute things to people (or maybe not attribute
them at all).  
     Whoever wrote about the Burrrruphti spirits was onto a good
thing.  
     Whoever said I was ignorant for mentioning Thomas Hardy's
Ale and Samiclaus as examples of beers laid down for a long time
has a reading comprehension problem: the question was whether it
was practical to lay down a keg of beer at a son's birth and
broach it on the boy's 21st birthday.  Add in the fact that kegs
aren't as airtight as capped bottles, and the answer is, of
course, no.  That's what I get for trying to be circumspect and
not just telling people they're full of sour beer.  I get more
people that're full of it trying to one-up me on the daily. 
(Even further aside: if we were on a newsgroup instead of a
mailing list, we'd probably have even more of the ill-thought-out
zingers by people like the home brewer who prove that a little
knowledge is a dangerous thing.  Some people write before they
think.)

Re: Bullwinkle
     The reason I made the Elk people Mooses, if I can recall
back that far, was to make them as different as possible from the
Deer people.  On the other hand, I like to say "wapiti."  Say it
over and over: wapiti wapiti wapiti wapiti.  Applying Loren's MGF
criterion, I'd say change it if you want.  I appreciate the "I
liked it but..." approach of the original author on this thread,
and I think I'll leave my comments at that.
     The reasons people confuse the two anyway are a) the
Genertela book seems to be confused over them and b) some people
are easily confused (they think all U.S. citizens are "Yanks,"
for example, or that all Netherlanders are Dutch).  This
confusion is more prevalent among those with little or no contact
with the Hsunchen tribes in question.

Re: extinct Galanini
     The Bull People are extinct, according to the unpublished
Hykim & Mikyh write-up.  My logic behind making the Galanini
extinct is that animals whose usefulness has caused them to be
spread among humans as a whole are more likely to be extinct.  In
effect, the animal deity loses his or her special connection to
the tribe.  The Dog people are still around, and I made the Sheep
People hold-outs too, along the section of coastline in SW
Genertela which isn't covered on any of the regional maps of the
continent.  But the Cat People are all Orlanthi now, and so are
many other tribes.  It could be a lot of fun to have Galanini,
though, and I urge people who want to run in Ralios to treat that
statement like the proof that elves were extinct in Second Age
Umathela.  I am not a one-true-worlder, and welcome
*constructive* criticism.

Re: Wolverine
     Wasn't he one of the Lunar Coders?  I think he has his own
TV show, too.

Re: something that didn't fit into Codex #2:
                      The Winds of Fronela
                    by Martin R. Crim (1994)

     All winds are magical, but some are more magical than
others.  The most common winds of Fronela are out of the west,
bringing moisture from the sea in the form of gentle rains and
light snow.  Bad winds come from the east or north.  

     A famous fierce northern wind goes by the name of Valind or
Buran, and he brings blizzards in winter and thunderstorms in
summer.  This spirit can be summoned by Orlanthi and by some
sorcerers.  (Orthodox Hrestoli do not summon him.)  The God-
Learners classified Buran (as they called him) as an Umbroli. 
When summoned, Buran always blows out of the north.  In Dark
Season and Storm Season, he brings a blizzard.  In Sea Season and
Fire Season, he brings a thunderstorm and storm winds.  In Earth
Season, he blows only with gale force.  

Buran
STR  50
INT  10
POW  40

Buran's strength represents only his ability to affect a small
area.  The area of his storm varies with the strength and area of
the pre-existing weather.  If summoned in a time of calm, he is
at his smallest, about a half-keymile in radius.  If summoned
while heavy snows are falling, he can increase the wind and snow
in a 100 keymile radius.

When summoned, Buran demands a sacrifice of 1 POW from the
summoner or 21 oxen.  If magically controlled instead of
sacrificed to, he will return the next time the weather is right
and attack his summoner to kill.

     Another famous magical wind lives in the mountains of
eastern Fronela.  His name is Foehn or Snow-Eater.  He is a hot,
dry wind who appears suddenly out of the south.  In Sea Season,
he can cause flooding by rapidly melting the ice and snow on the
ground.  Hsunchen and some peasants say he can dry up springs and
wells, but he is praised for banishing snow.

Foehn
STR  60
INT  13
POW  45

Foehn's area of effect is between 3/10 and 3 keymiles in radius,
depending on factors which are not known to mortals (so roll
randomly on D10 x .3 keymiles).

Only Orlanthi know the secrets of summoning Foehn.  When
summoned, Foehn demands a burnt sacrifice of seven pigs, seventy
bushels of grain, or seven spears.  (If spears are used, the lump
their heads form in the fire must be thrown down a dry well
afterwards, or else Foehn will haunt the caster.)

Other famous winds of the world
Blue Norther: winter wind replacing warm moist air with cold.
Bora: high winds flowing downhill and south off mountains toward
a coast.
Chinook: warm, strong westerly winds appearing out of clear
skies; dry.
Datoo: east wind blowing through a strait.
Etesian: refreshing summer wind.
Haboob: a dust storm.
Harmattan: a north-east wind over the ocean.
Khamsin: an ill wind.
Mistral: sudden, harsh north wind.
Monsoon: rain-laden summer wind.
Sharav: an ill wind.
Simoom: the poison wind, dry and dusty.
Sirocco: a hot, dry, dusty ill wind out of the south, in spring.
Tebbad: the fever wind.
Tourments: blizzards out of western mountains.
Vrazones: gyrating land or sea wind.
Williwaw: squall that moves seaward on mountainous coast.
Zonda: hot, dry, summer wind out of western mountains.




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