I play that Sense Assassin _is_ based on Death with a capital D. And that the "link" for the skill _cannot_ be formed by a brief prayer to Humakt, but only works when the target is the Humakti himself or for people that are _very_ close to him. An emotional link of importance needs to exist between the Humakti and the other, or Sense Assassin will not register -- Onslaught, for instance, if he has Sense Assassin (which I don't recall), would probably not be able to get it to work for anybody but himself.
Sense Assassin will only work on folk who plot death for the target, plan to carry out the death themselves, and who foresee that death as imminent (like within a few hours). It will _not_ work on someone who merely desires the death of another, but who does not plan to carry out the crime himself, or who plans to commit the murder several weeks for now, or who merely plans to harm or rob the target -- even if such harm or robbery might lead to death.
A bandit who plans to kill everyone in the party, then loot the dead would register to a Humakti. A bandit who order the party to surrender, then kill anyone who resists would NOT.
A Grand Vizier who paid a Black Fang Cultist to murder a princeling could stand in court right next to the princeling and not register on Sense Assassin. But if the Black Fanger walked into the room, the Humakti's senses would alert.
IMO, letting Sense Assassin be less restrictive than this makes it way too likely to upset Gloranthan ecology and a GM's plans. If you could "link" to someone else merely by a short prayer, any public meeting would be preceded by a bunch of Humakti's "linking" and checking for bad guys. Boring. If Sense Assassin detected anyone with the slightest wish of death for another, then there would be no murders in Glorantha, or at least many fewer. Boring.
If an ordinary bandit or band of trolls could be detected by Sense Assassin, then it becomes the same as the much-reviled skill of Sense Ambush, soundly berated by all right-thinking GMs everywhere.
Sandy P.
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #535
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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