Potentially both, I would think. If you are planning a big ritual then it is likely to be hard to disguise the fact from anyone who is taking an interest in what you are doing.
Tribal wyters, Heroband Guardians, Otherworldy allies and "sensitive" types may all notice "a disturbance in the force" type feeling, with the warning being more specific depending on how closely it matches their specific abilities
Or just a feeling of foreboding and vivid dreams...
IIRC there is some sort of link between those who have opposed each other on Heroquests (which can be responsible for dragging you/your enemies in to each others quests) so you may also come notice the early signs of this, as flashes of the otherworld can be glimpsed in "everyday" life, indicating an incipient weakening of the boundries and a sign to the wise to be prepared...
>
> > This shows one of the possible surprises: not just enemies, but
> > also friends or help.
>
> Hmm, good point. And again, I suppose you could use that from
> either VP - as the questor getting help, or the friend finding
> themselves involved, as Biturian did here.
>
Of course, sometimes the "help" might be less than helpful - if it's not help you were expecting in your (version of the) quest. Isn't there a Quest in KoDP where an Unexpected Storm Bull turns up and potentially derails the quest. The tricky question for the questor is whether accepting the help will cause problems further down the line, or whether the refusal of help will lead to disaster...
> > The Summons of Evil is not a quest, but a ceremony.
>
> Er....
>
> so it's still a ceremony, but not one to start a quest, at any
> level?
I would suspect that it *can* start a quest, but does not *usually* do so. It's purpose is to "flush out" evil - most of the time when your big hero is off Heroquesting you'r rather hoping that the local "evils" are busy doing their own things and not planning on bothering you just at the moment....
>
> what does this
> ceremony do? Makes the Other Side to certain very specific things,
> like scanning round for Foes, and mundanely moving them to your
> physical location?
>
> Hmm, teleportation is Difficult Magic. And there's a multiple
> target modifier. I can see why you get a lot of community support
> for this.
>
I don't think the "Summons of Evil" teleports your foes to your location, it just "encourages" those within striking distance to make their presence known. ("If all those Orlanthi are gathering together, blowing on their pipes, chanting their battlecrys etc, then they must be up to something, so we'd better hit them now before whatever they are up to starts working...") It's just that your aforementioned Arachne Solara, Goddess of plots sometimes intervenes to ensure their is more evil in striking distance than you had originally bargained for...
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