Well, it could be something to work up to -- in my opinion, one advantage of a clan-based campaign (or a city-based or league-based campaign) is that you know people are going to stick around. You can introduce Uncle Bjorn and make him an affable loser. Ten or twenty stories later, when he gets sick, releases chaos, turns Lunar, etc., it has more impact.
The visiting clan theme would work -- a character has a sister who married the trader or the champion of the afflicted clan. The PCs go to visit and get caught up in the action. If they need a hook, they have family involved. That gives them a personal tragedy as well -- if the champion dies or becomes Humakti, his immediate family will be ruined (or at least hurt) and the sister is going to be stuck in a foreign clan with no husband (and husbands in somewhat short supply) and a bloodline Matriarch who a) dislikes the sister and b) wants the children to stay with the clan if the sister goes back "home." Everyone loses on the altar of destiny (except the clan, of course, but the point is to make them deal with human costs of inflexible religious/mythic/etc actions).
> > For an extra bit of tragedy, there is a
> > cure for the disease, but
> > it's a CA thing, and the Humakti a) doesn't know
> > about it or b) won't ask
> > for it or c) the local CA gyrda won't give it.
>
>Yeah!
>He doesn't know about it: if he did, I don't see any
>reason why he'd object to it being supplied for his
>brother. But he himself of course has the "no healing
>from non-Humakti" geas, which the heroes don't find
>out about until *after* they've obtained the cure.
>There will be a few hints of course (lots of scars).
Maybe both brothers have to be healed at once or will be healed at once -- heck, maybe just the trader has the disease but their "twin link" is killing them both. Whether both surviving if the one is healed breaks the geas is up to the god to decide (is Life stronger than Death)?
>I'm not even sure this is an "illness" as such. Maybe
>some kind of family curse, that's why the Humakti twin
>is so sure it'll apply to both of them. "Once you have
>your first grey hair, you will waste away within a
>year and a day", or something.
That would be good, too. Maybe there's some question if the Humakti even has it right. This could shape up nicely into a conflict between Humakt's rigid worldview and "There is always another way." Themes galore!
Peter Larsen
Engineering and Physical Sciences Librarian
University of Rhode Island Library
15 Lippitt Rd
Kingston, RI 02881-0803
phone: (401) 874-4637
fax: (401) 874-5403
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