Erik Sieurin:
> I think most mindless, multi-purpose gnomes are confused wandering
Mostali constructs......
Definitely not Mostali! The wandering Mostali constructs are usually stone or metal, not earth, such as the Jolanti.
Your later comments about their connection with the earth are much closer. In my view (and campaign), gnomes and other elementals are much like dryads. Their bodies exist within the mundane plane but their spirits form the earth, etc. of the spirit plane. Only when powerful magicians/priests summon their spirits across to the mundane plane can these bodies be activated and moved. Those most in tune with doing so are those skilled in Earth magics (who as 'children' of the earth deities might be considered 'siblings' of the elementals). The elementals innately resist this, though they don't possess any particular intelligence or concepts about the mundane world. When they are summoned they must be explicitly told to move, to move objects, etc. and they don't have any concept about things not of the earth. There are undoubtedly exceptions--gnomes with intelligence. These may speak with other spirits, learn about things on the mundane plane (if they've been there), etc. Some of these may have served as familiars or allied spirits.
Peter Metcalfe:
> Casting an Extinguish at the Flame would be equivalent to casting
Drain Soul at a human. I do not think casting Extinguish would kill it
any more than a human affected by Drain Soul could be killed through
loss of MP.
Just as making a wraith or similar into a familiar changes the way it can be attacked, I think a living flame as an allied spirit changes it from being an ordinary flame. As you comment, it still must be fed and if it isn't fed but can reach food itself, it will eat (i.e. start a forest fire). Extinguish against such a living flame should work similar to other spirit magics like Disruption against a human. If it overcomes the flames' magic points, it should take general damage. If the flame is small enough at that point (e.g. living in a single coal), then the Extinguish may kill it, just as a Disruption may kill a human if the human is weak enough. So you probably want to keep the living flame where it is stronger, such as in a forge or hearth.
There are some examples of allied spirits transferring bodies (such as the allied spirit in the rat flea in the old tale in RQ Companion about Zero the Detective). This issue is true for any short-lived species (troll beetles, etc.). I tend to favor the idea of quests (probably to Hell or the spirit plane) to recover such allies though.
Harald
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #214
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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