>From: Gavain Sweetman <gavain.sweetman_at_...>
>
>Has anyone had experiece of using wardings in HQ? They seem to have
>dissapeared since RQ days. Except to find them blocking doors you need to
>pass
>through.
>
>ISTR that Gultha Goldentogue is the only place where such a thing is given
>as a
>feat - Protection Whilst Sleeping.
You're looking specifically for magic abilities that protect somebody from harm, or warn them when danger is approaching?
Because, frankly, there are tons of abilities that are "protection" sorts of abilities. Yes, with spells and feats you have to actually activate them. But, with a penalty, you can cast them to have a duration that lasts all night. So your "Turn Away Beast" spell can be cast when you go to sleep, and worry less about animals attacking while you sleep (with the penalty). With charms, these work even if you're asleep or wherever (I believe). So these would work as "wards" this way all the time.
But I suspect you're thinking of abilities that are specifically all about long-term watching and protecting, right? At a guess, I'd say that most such abilities have been removed, and replaced. With guardians.
If you're in a hero band, then you probably automatically have a "Defensive" ability that comes from the guardian, and a "perception" ability, which, I believe, largely boils down to the guardian watching over the character. Guarding, you know. That's not to say that I don't think that there should be other magical wards here and there, like the Goldentongue one you mention. Just that with hero bands having them, there's less need.
If this seems to make it rare, because you don't have a lot of hero bands in your game, well, there's a lot of that going around. Basically the problem is that the HQ book, in putting hero bands in a section apart from character generation, and with the examples provided, gives the impression that this is something to be developed and achieved in play. Perhaps a long-term goal. Even the name "hero band" seems to imply that it's a rare and wonderous thing.
But another reading, and clarifications here, tell a different story. Apparently most organizations - and certainly any organization that has to do with magic - has a guardian. Including the example given of the Heortling Weaver's Circle. Yeah, far from being relegated to groups of valiant heroes, apparently groups of old women of the clan even get guardians.
Perhaps a better name for them would have been Guardian Groups or somesuch, if this is the impression that was supposed to be implied.
The implication is that, in fact, each hero should probably start out in at least one, if not several, herobands. If he's a warrior, then the warrior band for the clan should have a guardian. If he's also a member of the local Humakt temple, then he should also be in a hero band that involves the daimone of death that looks over the local Humakt shrine. And everyone in the clan should be part of the heroband that is guarded over by the clan wyter. If you're not, then you're an outsider (if not quite outlaw).
And there's no reason why the character can't also be part of a hero band that represents the Heortling rebellion to start. And maybe even a couple of additional hero bands that gel with these others. The practical limit on hero bands is merely which ones accept members from which other.
I'm not saying that evey hero should start out with 6 hero bands. But two or three seems near perfunctory, and not starting with at least one - under this interpretation - would be very strange. Yet, again, because the book doesn't make this part of the chargen sequence, or imply it well, most games don't start characters with even one hero band. I know I forget it each and every time.
It's almost like a mental block. For me, at least. It's something I've been trying to overcome.
Because, frankly, I love the idea of hero bands, and characters being involved in lots of them. They add a lot of dimensions to characters. I do occasionally push them in play. But that's too late I think.
Anyhow, to get back to the topic, imagine your character is guarded over by a wyter when at home, a daimone of humakt telling when something that needs killing is near, a daimone that's an ancestral clan hero who warns when enemies approach, a spirit of rebellion that tells if Lunars are near, and an essence of water that warns of environmental dangers like floods and such. And that's just one character, there's another who follows Kolat who can tell when enemy spirits are around, and another character in the group that belongs to a band in which a daimone of households that tells when an outsider approaches the family.
I think that such a group has plenty of "wards." What might seem to be a ritual to activate a ward, could instead be just a quick propitiation of the guardian. For the household daimone, the member of that band places a bit of food at the door, a sacrifice to ensure that the daimone is looking out for them. With the Kolating spirit guardian, perhaps the member sits, and listens to the wind spirit guardian for a moment before going to bed, making sure it's still a friend, and watching for gales.
Right now, the example that's most intriguing to me, and explicit in the HQ book, are the essences that are put in wizardry schools. The book says that magic rooms "literally groan with the weight of the magical wards placed upon them" (or something close to that). These are essences. In a guardian role, certainly they imply a hero band.
Nearly Headless Nick, anyone? The guardian of the Gryfindor House? Ghosts are essences of the people who've passed. In fact, given the desciption that Nick gives of his existence when Harry asks him if he'll ever see Siruis Black again matches the description of ghost as essence perfectly well. Each house has it's ghost, and said ghost runs about helping out. It's a precise example of a guardian, each house being the "hero band" organization that the essence guards.
Apollogies to anyone not steeped in Harry Potter lore (I have a five year old, so it's perfunctory for me - OK, and I think it's fun stuff, too).
But the point is that even in more serious sorts of sample literature and other examples, I think we can see that the hero band/guardian mechanics can serve to emulate "wards" and such well.
Mike
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