>the White Moon's cycle can perhaps be attributed to eclipsing by the
>Black Moon, but on the other hand, that's after the Sun's rise.
As I understand it, we have 3 stages of White Moondom. First, the White Moon presides serenely over parts of the Green Age. Then Yelm appears, and the Shadowmoon is formed as the White Moon's darkside. Then Yelm dies, and so does the White Moon, leaving only the Shadowmoon aboveground. Finally, at the birth of the Young Sun, the Shadowmoon, too, is banished to the afterlife.
Now, while the White Moon was still aboveground, it may have moved through the sun's route -- in which each "day" the Sun moved in a circle over the Gloranthan surface -- stopping at the four famous castles -- one in Genertela, one in Luathela, one in Pamaltela, and one in Vithela. The Luathelan and Vithelan castles eventually became the Castles of Dawn and Dusk. The Pamaltelan castle was probably the ancestor of the Enmal Mountains. Dunno what happened to the Genertelan castle. Seems to be gone now.
In the Green Age, the moon could have followed this route before the castles were even formed. In the Golden Age, it would have been moving along the route at some distance from the Sun. Or possibly it hovered right over the tip of the Spike, so the Shadowmoon seemed to rotate.
If we assume that the sun's path was the equivalent to a "year" (of course no time was actually passing), then this would give us a possible source for the White Moon's phases.
>As for the Blue Moon hovering over Pamaltela, does that imply that
>it didn't have a cycle at all in those days?
There is a tale that the Blue Moon only rose once in the Godtime, and was never truly born. This is why she lurks half-dead, half-alive, beneath the Blue Moon Plateau. Since it's obvious to anyone with an ounce of sense that the Blue Moon rises from Hell every day and falls through the Pole Star into the Homeward Ocean whirlpool, it's difficult to explain this story except as an interpretation of the Blue Moon's "spiritual" whereabouts.
Takehiro
>When you intent to cast a spell automatically to those who walks
>into particular area, it will be represented by the combination of
>Link Spell Condition, Attack Condition and Area-Effect Condition
Lemme give an example, it will explain things better than theoretical rules-mongering.
Wilbur the Wimp wants to set up an automatic bug-zapper to keep mosquitoes out of his porch. To do this, he creates a Disrupt matrix, then he gives it an Area Effect, equal in size to his porch. He then creates an Attack Condition (fire on any insect entering the prescribed Area). Finally, he takes a magic crystal and sets up a Link Condition to the Disrupt.
Now, the next bug flying into his porch is immediately attacked by a Disrupt spell. This spell's offensive "strength" is 1 MP, so even a single point of Countermagic will keep it from hurting the insect in question. If the insect has a Countermagic 3, it can fly in and out with impunity. If Wilbur feared Countermagic-bearing bugs, he could have included in his Attack Condition a rule that the Disrupt was to be boosted with additional MPs.
The spell's chance to overcome the bug's MPs is based on the MPs in the magic crystal, since that is what is "backing up" the spell. If it is a 7-point crystal and the bug's MPs are 1 (fairly typical, I should think), then the crystal has a 80% chance of success, decreasing by 5 percentiles each time it fires, as the crystal's MPs get lower.
CryptoMatt
>Discussions concerning Glorantha's great religious movements may
>hold great interest. However, it is the little snapshots of daily
>life that reach out and touch me
Here's something that I just learned. In the dark ages, most families would slaughter the more sickly pigs in November, because (they reasoned) the animals wouldn't survive the winter anyway. In addition, it was quite common for folks to sell their cattle and draft horses to a large scale producer each winter, because it costs a great deal to keep said animals alive in a hard winter on a small holding. So it is actually cheaper for a small stead to sell its beasts each winter, and then purchase them back each spring than to keep them year-round with the risk that they might die.
The major farms, with plenty of fodder, defenses vs. predators, and sometimes even heated stone barn were much likelier to keep the animals in good shape during the winter.
Now, among the Orlanthi, the main clan holding takes the place of these agricultural speculators -- of course, a small-time Orlanthi farmer doesn't sell his cows to his clan leaders, he merely drives them to the big central barn for the winter. In the spring, he leads them out again. Since trolls and raiders know this, too, the need to take your turn holding spear and shield watching over the clan's bar takes on new purpose and meaning.
If a troll raid ever manages to pillage the main barn, the entire clan is impoverished. Some tribes might have strong enough central control, or generous enough members to ensure that the other clans provide enough replacement critters to keep the clan from dying, but this must be one of the most dreadful disasters that can occur, and explains why the only two foes who normally do this (broos and trolls) are so hated by the Orlanthi. I assume humans normally only steal as many cows as they can run off at one time, while broos naturally rape and kill all they can get to, and trolls also leave the barn a slaughterhouse, eating all they can, and wastefully killing the rest (or eating, say, just the udders off all the cows).
Time For A New Monster
SPARHOG
A nonsentient chaotic monster from Pamaltela. Their bodies
are rather like the form of a large pig, tapir, or rhino, with a
rotund abdomen, stout hooved legs, and a negligable tail. Instead of
a snout, their head ends in a long tentacle. Above the tentacle opens
a small tuskless mouth. Sparhogs are vegetarians, but they are
irascible and dangerous. They destroy plants, especially trees by
wrapping their facial tentacle around them, draining the tree, then
burning and killing it, then eating the remains. Because trees are
rare and valuable in the savanna, the ministrations of sparhogs are
greatly disliked.
Occasionally there are packs of dozens of sparhogs, who migrate across the land, leaving blackened waste behind them. Most sparhogs encountered in such packs are tiny -- only half-meter to a meter or so long. Presumably they are immature specimens.
STR 3d6+6 16-17 Move 3 CON 3d6+6 16-17 Hit Points 17 SIZ 3d6+6 16-17 Fatigue 33 INT 4 4 MPs: 20-22 (normally double their POW) POW 3d6 10-11 DEX 3d6 10-11 hit location melee (d20) missile (d20) pts rh leg 01-02 01-02 7/5 (.25) lh leg 03-04 03-04 7/5 (.25) hind q 05-07 05-09 7/7 (.40) fore q 08-10 10-14 7/7 (.40) rf leg 11-13 15-16 7/5 (.25) lf leg 14-16 17-18 7/5 (.25) head 17-18 19 7/6 (.33) tentacle 19-20 20 7/5 (.25) Weapon SR Attk Damage Kick 7 40-1 1d8+1d6 Tentacle 7 60-1 1d6 + 1d6 + grabs (see note) Shock 1 Auto. 3d6 lightning (see note) Drain 1 Auto. MP drain (see note)
NOTE: Once the tentacle hits, it grabs hold. On future rounds, the sparhog can choose either to zap a gripped prey with lightning, or drain his MPs. Either attack costs the Sparhog 1d6 MPs.
Lightning: roll 3d6 and subtract the target's non-metal armor. Match the result against the target's CON. If overcome, the target takes the full result in damage to the hit point gripped. Otherwise, he takes half the result in damage.
Drain: the target loses 1d10 MPs, which are added to the sparhog's. This attack costs the sparhog 1d6 MPs, but it usually makes a profit. If the drained MPs would take the sparhog's MPs above twice his POW, the extra MPs are burned off instead -- the target loses them, but the sparhog does not gain them. If the target would be taken below 0 MPs, he loses POW instead.
DEFENSES: sparhogs have a tough thick skin. If that wasn't enough, they are able to heal damage and regenerate lost limbs at the rate of 1 point per MP spent. They have no limit to the number of MPs they can spend in a round.
CHAOTIC FEATURES: a sparhog has a 05% chance of having an additional chaos feature, beyond its normal powers.
Powered by hypermail