Find a blank? Know Rune Magic - resist compulsion or fill stone. Once filling stops, stone is set to those spells cast into it. "A fabled cleansing ritual is remembered in story, but not in practice."
No magic, or resist the compulsion? Find a group of priests, and get them to fill it. "Only as many priests as can touch the stone at the same time can cast their magic into it" so size *does* count in some cicumstances.
Once a priest casts a spell into the stone, the spell cannot be regained until cast from the stone.
One from me, for which I can find no evidence off-hand:
One-use spells can also be set into the stone. The priest permanently loses that spell, and must resacrifice for it. If cast from the Truestone, only the same one-use spell may take its place, again a permanent loss for the casting priest.
These seem to work well in practice. It gives the stones more character than if they were just a repository for "x" rune points (which they were in RQ2). They are slightly less predictable, in that a small stone may hold more than a large stone, and any stone may hold one point of RM or 10s or even 100s of points.
The "use before regaining" rule means that only one 'spell licence' is issued - no spell piracy or "something for nothings" as people bang 12 points of Shield into the stone then regain that 12 points to use, for a total of 24. It also makes PCs more leary of filling stones as a cult duty.
The "set in stone" nature means you can give players access to other cult's spells, and gives you more plot options. Do the PCs return a stone to the cult it originated from? Sell it to the cult's foes? "Reservoir" style truestones are worth the same to all cults - "Set" stones have different values, dependent on the buyer.
It all adds up to more control for me as the GM, and MGF for my players. YMMV.
Nigel
ObTenuousConnection: Reservoir looked (still looks) as though the spelling was wrong, so I looked it up in the dictionary, which magically opened at "spike" (cue Twilight Zone music...). The next time you describe the Stormbull encampment at the Block, that remnant of the Cosmic Spike, remember that...
spike...<definitions snipped>... 5. Brit sl., another word for dosshouse and
dosshouse n. Brit. sl., a cheap lodging house, especially one used by tramps.
Just don't tell the Stormbullies!
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