It's great to read that everyone had a splendid time at Chicago. I wish I had been able to attend! (And it's great to see that my prediction of a big boost in numbers in the final weeks was on the money too!)
Philip Hibbs' Theory:
>The vast bulk of the Block contains the Binding spell that Storm Bull put into
>it to trap the Devil. The shards that break off are blank, and if you could
>break a 'set' Truestone, the larger portion would retain the magic, and the
>smaller portion would be blank.
This, I like! What a shame then, that it is so damn difficult to break Truestone!
Andrew Behan:
>Think about it. The Devil is stuck under (i.e. in contact with) the
>Block. If you cast your Divine Magic into it then it can use it. I
>suspect that this would be an even better way to help it than chipping
>bits off.
Andrew Joelson:
>Actually, the Devil is down there somewhere underneath, sucking in
>all the magic _through_ the Block. (Ugly things come from Down Under!)
>When he get's enough, he's finally going to push the Bock aside and resume
>the GodsWar. I know that the Deviul using a fragment of the Spike as a tool
>is a contradiction, but that's what Chaos is all about.....
While the two Andrews spin a great conspiracy theory, these 'uns have as much cred as the Men in Black and reports that Elvis actually did die in 1977 (though Mr J is on the money when he says "ugly things come from Down Under", for those of you who remember "The Highwayman", a trashy US action series screened some years ago, starring our least telegenic export, Mark "Jacko" Jackson).
Truestone is *solidified law*, the absolute antithesis of chaos (that's why the Devil can't get out from under it). IMG, truestone *burns* chaos creatures that come into contact with it, and if one was foolish enough to try to cast magic into it, it would simply bounce back at 'em!
Arf Wilson asks for a second time:
>The question I am putting to you more worldly (lozengely?) wise people is
>whom would the SB lose his ear to? Would he have to fight a chaos foe,
>lose the ear, nearly die, and be healed by an Eiritha priestess before
>whacking the foe and retreating? At this point, the Initiation begins to
>me to sound like a heroquest. Or perhaps that's the way Initiaion should
>be...
I suspect that while some temples stage the fight symbolically (and possibly only pierce their ears, cut off the lobe or otherwise scarify but not completely rip it off), others might go for broke, as described. These guys would be the loopy fundamentalist wing of the Storm Bullies, and worth keeping one's distance from! If I recall my PLUNDER correctly, the Storm Bull's Ear greatly boosts the lucky owner's Sense Chaos skill, once they cut off their own ear and stick it on. Maybe the pierced/scarified/branded ear thing during initiation confers the Sense Chaos ability in the first place, and marks one as having that gift?
Art again:
>Also, I am having difficulty converting gloranthan coinage, and I can
>find no sources that explain it - can someone tell me approxiamtely how
>many Lunars there are to a Wheel?
Black Army regulations specifiy that Inquistors should only put one citizen on the wheel at a time, in the interests of obtaining clear and coherent confessions. However, at the Storm Bull temple on Kree Mountain a Storm Bully party trick is to rack captured soldiers in groups: it might take longer to break 'em, but the Bully-boys consider it a whole lot more fun!
[In the Lunar Empire, the *official* rate of exchange is 20 silver imperials (also known as lunars) to the gold wheel. Unfortunately, inflation, a phenomenon relatively unknown in the Empire until recent times, is putting great pressure on this rate,which has remained stable since the days of Dara Happa. This situation is a cause of great consternation for the Red Dancer of Power, but rumours of a debasement of the gold standard are probably groundless.]
Simon Phipp:
>But think of the logistics of Gonn Orta (who fathered the baby) and a
>big giant of, say, 16m - there is a 1000% size difference here -
>imagine making it with a woman 18 cm tall - Barbie Doll size.
No doubt there are specialist Usenet groups catering for this somewhat unconventional interest who could explain the difficulties involved...
>Clearly, Gonn Orta is of a different scale to tghe lesser giants.
It's obvious that Mrs Gonn Orta (whoever she is) had to be approaching him in SIZ to bear the Cradle Babe. And, boy, I bet the earth really did move when they did the business!
One of the Spanish subscribers to the Digest (who e-mailed me privately, so won't give his name) has let me know that Sun County ain't yet made it into Spanish. I was informed of the possibility by the publishers there, Joc Internacional, a couple of years ago, but heard no more. Our Man in Espania tells me that they have been bringing things out chronologically, and the last thing they did in their RQ line was a translation of 'Eldarad' - would that be 'El Dorado' perhaps? (though this particular lost city certainly wasn't one of gold...) Now, Juc Internacional have got big time into CCGs, so it's possible the RQ Renaissance has fallen off the wheels there too.
Cheers
MOB
Stephen Martin:
>These are great, really, I don't mean to complain. But, how many times do
>we have to be told that Uleria position #769 is the same as #146, except
>that the goat need not be domesticated?
Well, since you've repeated it verbatim, just one more time! I apologise if I pull the same thing out of the files more than once: I'm keeping a list of the ones I use, but I must have obviously got mixed up posting from my account at work (which reminds me, I'd better go and do some...)
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