> Trolls are a little problematic. Now, what trollish leader hasn't tried
> feeding steroids to his Great Troll, trying to get it strong enough to be
> a living catapult?
Forget the part about living catapult, concentrate on having living
ammo (trollkin). I bet there is a strange subcult of Whatshisname the
Hurler somewhere who teaches some spell which allows trollkin to
survive being shot away ("gives total immunity to all damage caused
by being thrown, dropped or tossed as an attack", 1 point, resuable,
blablah..)
Otherwise, with Great Trolls in the crew, you can have them carry small siege engines and cock them by hand (like Arnold carrying a minigun). A special trollkin with keener eyesight is used to aim, or as a forward observer...
> When all concerned parties are _really_ worked up, the denizens of Pavis
> can sit on the wall, crack open a beer and watch the fun as rocks, bolts,
> firey projectiles, gorps and the occasional duck get tossed around between
> the hostile parties, while furious troll beetle patrols counter-attack
> their enemies. (Hmmm. Shades of "Nuclear War," the card game).
Not to mention all the burrowing and sapping activity going on -
trolls who chew their way, dwarves, krashtkids, Old Pavis Survivors
being used to being underground, ogres, the Voralans who variously
work for the Garden and the trolls... BTW, the Gopher in Disney's
Winnie the Pooh is a damn good role model for a rock dwarf...even
looks the part.
> Um, yes. So anyway, what's up with Sartar? Are the windy Celts left bereft
> of engines, or do they know their use? Or do they hire foreigners? Might
> not have been an issue unitl the Lunars arrived, and the Sartarites were
> faced with an efficient foe who could capably assault cities and forts.
Having efficient weather control and movement magic at your disposal gives a good
replacement. Thunderbolt on large engines, almost as many flying
troops as the trolls, fog and rain to obscure shooting...
And, talking about rain, I have some ideas, which perhaps won't lend itself to a myth but perhaps to a nice cartoon, concerning Orlanth and Heler, and the idea that sheep and clouds are connected.
Well, somewhen in Godtime the sons of Umath went cattle-raiding. It was young Orlanth's first raid, and the rest of the family had not that much respect for him. However, he followed his brothers carrying their gear.
Anyway, they went to the pastures of the Sea tribe and sent the young'un to scout out the place. Orlanth tiptoed ahead and saw that there was but a single herdsman there. He bumped him on the head, and proudly dragged the down-and-out watergod back to his brothers, who to his surprise weren't impressed at all. Humakt thought it unfair to attack a man from behind. Vadrus and Raglagnar chided him for not cutting the guy's throat at was only proper. Kolat sternly advised him to obey his elders next time and not do anything they hadn't told him. Urox got gloomy becuase the fight was already over and no fun was left. Then the brothers continued on to the pasture.
When the shepherd had disappeared violently, the sheeps had scattered, but the elder brothers rounded up most of them. To move properly, they loaded off all their wargear on poor Orlanth, so he didn't capture any cattle, and in the end he settled for dragging home his captive. His elder brothers laughed at him, because it was obvious the guy was just a poor cottar, and no ransom would thus be expected and no honor was gained by conquering him.
Anyway, when they returned home Orlanth went to his father in the hall and complained that it was not fair that he didn't get his share of the raid. He hadn't captured any cattle himself, but had certainly helped. In the end Humakt acknowledged that his scouting had been of some use and gave him a single sheep. The rest was kept by the brothers who had taken them.
However, the brothers did not know how to treat the strange new cattle. They did not know anything about how to shear them or what they should eat, and when Raglagnar angrily butchered his share, he destroyed most of the meat since he did not know how to do it properly. Thus they did not boast of the raid, and hoped it would be forgotten.
Orlanth had something of kingship in him already. "I have a thrall who know this cattle." he said "He can take care of it for me." So he simply let Heler take care of the single sheep for him, and since he knew what to do, it was the only sheep which prospered. Finally Umath ordered his other sons to render their sheep unto their younger brother, since he was obviously the only one who could take care of them, and it was a waste of the tribe's resources otherwise. Orlanth set Heler free for helping him, but Heler had received such good treatment that he stayed.
He learnt his master how to herd the sheep but never how to milk them (since Orlanth considered that women's work), and thus the Storm-king cannot call for rain, the milk of the cloud-sheep which nourish the earth, without Heler's direct aid.
And Orlanth vowed that if he ever became chieftain, he would make fair rules for the division of the spoils of war, and so he did, and those rules are still followed by good Orlanthi everywhere.
Well, that's just some thoughts - I have some more details, but they rather unserious, so I'll leave it at that.
"The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea, in a beautiful pea-green boat..."
>From "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear
Erik Sieurin
bv9521_at_utb.hb.se
Bodagatan 39, 2 tr
50742 Boras
Sweden
033/141731
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #188
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
Powered by hypermail