I'd begin by askind him/her a few questions, with the aim of knowing whether he's "just" sore to have lost his main power (perfectly understandable) or he/she actually FEELS something about losing his/her Water rune. If he's just a normal player whining about power loss, I'd try to manipulate him into better, deeper roleplay.
Once we have gotten there, I'd tempt the player with offers for Power from a Water ennemy: Fire comes to mind, or Valind (ice). Like "hey, Water flowed away from you, Heler laughes at you. I can give you Great Power (new rune, same rating or even better as Water). All you have to do is... (do something that flies against everything the character stood for until now). Of course, you must provide a possible way out, with the player vainquishing the corruptor.
Now an important question is: WHO / WHAT took the player's Water Rune exactly? How did it happen? Because that's where his power is, and he can choose to go claim it back. I love recurring villains!
All this talk about Heler has come at an interesting moment for me. Recently, the Heler PC in my campaign wound up losing his Water rune. He did a Heroquest, wagered his entire Water rune during the HQ Challenge, and then lost through a run of terrible die rolls that his hero points couldn't compensate for. So now he's a Heleri without a water rune. He badly wants to get his Water rune back somehow, which seems likely to require another Heroquest. Does anyone have any ideas about a myth he could use for that? I thought about Orlanth and Aroka , but without Air rune magic, that might be pretty tricky.
Andrew E. Larsen
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