>He Realizes that Shargash is Actually ZZ, and starts digging a deep,
dark, secret Enclosure and hoarding Zombies in it so that one day he may
ambush the entire city, break the walls, realease the primal forces of
destruction and lead the Legions of Death to a final Victory of Blood
and Vengance over the foul Aether.
I picture ZZ/Xiola Umbar as more ancient and primal than even trolls. He isn't a troll deity in the same way Kigor Litor is - he's more universal. The cult write ups we have for ZZ are trollish, thus the presumed hate of Aether. But I think an illuminated ZZ or (Shargashi) would realize this. Thus, no zombies, no trolls, no fire - just primal, purifying renewal. Your picture might work for a Shargashi who "fumbled" his illumination studies! All IMO.
SFC RITUAL MAGIC RULES Boris wonders about how the SFC deals with ritual magic. We use PenDragon Pass rules,. These are easily converted to RQ.
To do the Summons of Evil, we had the officiator, Varmand the Chief (and
runelord of Vinkot - Orlanth/Adventurous), make a Religion/Orlanth roll.
(This is a Knowledge/Lore skill.) This reflected the proper/useful
knowledge of the myth.
Then the leader of the ceremony (Heorl, the Orlanth/Thunderous Godi),
made a "ritual" roll. This is a magical skill, a Summon/Enchant skill
rolled into one. Good roleplaying ideas from the players, (unlucky
mannequins, driving out Horselegs), provided positive (or negative!)
modifiers in the ref's mind. Likewise, a failed, fumbled, or critical
Religion or Ritual roll would also impact the Ceremony. (It might
fizzle into nothingness, or summon something *really* unpleasant!)
That's about as detailed as we get. Then the ref sits back and describes what happens, usually with a bit of excitement thrown in - like having to bash a horrible, smelly broo!. This is kinda nifty because we have PC's putting lots of points in to "Religion Lore" and "Ritual" skills, because they are useful as "Sword", if not more so. As for ritual-oriented rune spells, about all we deal with is:
Worship (rarely used in roleplaying - assumed to work almost automatically)
Opposed-roll spells:
Summon Elemental (species)
Control Elemental (species)
Summon Cult Spirit
Command Cult Spirit
Dismiss Elemental - haven't decided on mechanism - hasn't come up.
We haven't made a seperate ritual skill for each type. Part of the strength of the Orlanthi is to combine myths to design a ritual to aid in whatever endeavor you wish. thus you have to be flexible. The two "religion" and "ritual" skills reflect this nicely.
Pam
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