Re: Trickster magic

From: Charles Corrigan <charles_at_...>
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2004 13:22:44 -0000

Having a trickster around can be very problematic. At one point in the Fire Bull campaign, Bruce Ferrie played a trickster (and it was tough for him to be trickster enough to justify the title while not being such a trickster as to piss the other players off). On many occasions, the rest of the heroes (including mine) beat up the tickster after varying levels of provocation. One idea from that campaign follows.

Elusu insults or even harms one of the players in such a way that, as proud Heortlings, they will want to kill him. When they call out Elusu in public (they don't want to commit secret murder do they?), Kallyr intervenes as Elusu is bonded to her. Did the hereoes know this?

Well, of course, this is an opportunity to interact with Kallyr to show how great you are and how much you deserve vengeance. However, she will be adamant that Elusu, despite being a complete shit (deliberate reference here), is not going to die or be seriously hurt.

How do the heroes handle this situation?

They can push their luck and get thane's weregild (or better) from Kallyr, though the cost may be that they piss her off.

Perhaps a better route is to get a much lesser compensation and watch as Kallyr publicly humiliates Elusu as she beats the crap out of him. Maybe, if they play their cards right, they can help in the beating. But woe betide them if they "accidentally" kill or permanently maim him.

Or do they chicken out and say it is OK, they didn't realise that Elusu was so important to her? Of course, that carries the risk of loss of reputation in front of Kallyr and their peers.

To my mind, this is more of a sub-plot rather than a full blown scenario in its own right.

regards,
Charles

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