Andrew talked about the Hill of Gold quest - I think it is important to realise that not only will heroquesting and going against the established pattern cause potential problems with chaning myths etc., but it also gains you rewards that most cultists consider less desirable.
Sandy described the Hill of Gold quest in reasonable detail a long time ago (check out the excellent searchable archives provided by Loren and Rob MacArthur - thanks again, guys), and if you haven't read it the following may be a little confusing.
The thing I find interesting is that to a Yelmalion hero, the real prize is possible immortality, not regaining fire powers, and departing from the path (even by actually beating ZZ) makes the real prize harder to obtain. To an orthodox Yelmalion hero, beating ZZ properly is actually a disaster, as it means the final stage of the quest (where he fights chaotic parasites) is going to be much harder (as ZZ is not there to beat up the chaos), and in fact no Yelmalion hero has ever succeeded in the quest if they beat ZZ early on.
Your average Yelmalion Light Son is not a hero, and wants to survive and escape with some of Yelmalios shed blood (Light Crystals). He may even leave the path before meeting ZZ, as the ZZ opponent that he will meet is bound to be damn tough.
A Yelmalion who planned on beating ZZ would be very unusual - a hero capable of beating a ZZ avatar is probably tough enough to do the whole quest normally, providing the chaotic foes at the end are not too tough. Such a hero could load up on troll fighting magic rather than on surviving winter and chaos-fighting magic, and plan to leave the quest halfway, but with Fire powers - but why? The fire powers are a poor prize compared to the immortality he could have won. Whats more, chaos is strengthened, and he will probably have to face the chaos monsters so created (the ones that are no longer killed by ZZ) at some point.
Its only when you get the illuminated types and God Learners that going against the myth pattern starts to really pay off - when they start just not changing the story, but the rules. When they fight ZZ to a standstill, parley with the hated foe, and then gift him with the chaos fighting powers that they learnt from Storm Bull, so that they retain the fire powers, the chaos is still weak so they have a chance, and ZZ is even happy as well. This sort of thing is, I suspect, the sort of thing that Arkat (and Nysalor, for that matter) did quite a bit of. The God Learners as well, sometimes, but they are just as likely to wander in, smack Orlanth, smack ZZ, collect all the profit, and then leave the chaos so released as a problem for somebody else to face.
Cheers
David
PS I generally avoid gender specific language, but we are talking about
Yelmalions here.
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