I speak as someone who quite enjoys graphic horror. I read Clive Barker and Stephen King and enjoy the visceral thrill that their work can achieve. However, I have to say that it is only a visceral, gut-wrenching response. It is not the emotional, intellectual, mind-wrenching response that I would like to associate with Vadeli atrocities.
I don't think that we can achieve that desired response by escalating levels of graphic description. Rather I think that we are best off trying to use suggestion and innuendo to allow the players' own fears to come to the surface. This is the prefered method for artistic horror.
To use a minor example from our campaign, I frequently play a Tusk Rider. He is an avid practitioner of the Bloody Cut ritual. He has collected a complete set of all the 97 recommended cutting tools for the best execution of the ritual, and he has used them on a goodly number of captives. However, we have never bothered to detail what all these tools are nor how they are used. We have never had a single description of what he does to his captives. When he strips down to his loincloth and gets out the knife case, all the other party members get out of sight, and preferable out of earshot, quickly. They don't want to know what is happening! They know enough to know that they don't want to know any more.
I think that most of us will never be playing Vadeli. If we do it will be in peculiar circumstances (like a LARP) where the full details won't be relevant. As players encountering Vadeli, it will be sufficient to have lots of rumours to fuel our fears. As GMs running Vadeli, it will be enough to have a feeling for how many victims they need and some idea of what sort of cruelties will be inflicted on those victims.
After all, they won't always do exactly the same thing will they? Leave some room for creative expression on the part of the GM and the Vadeli. That way the players can't be sure what to expect, so they will worry more. The unknown is the real source of fear.
End of Glorantha Digest V3 #102
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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