Clever Conies, Big Bridges

From: Philip Hibbs <PHibbs_at_compuserve.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 14:03:08 -0500

>>Are all smart animals big?
>I'm not sure this is always true. ...
>For bunnies, some birds, horses, and other animal that rely on speed...
>A giant rabbit might be cumbersome and easily caught.

Why should a rabbit be slower just because it's big? A human 12m tall would die under his own weight, but Giants don't, so the rules don't apply. That bunny would still travel at the same speed as a bunny relative to it's size - - ie. like shit off a hot shovel.

It would be easier to spot, though, but no natural rabbit-predator would go near it!

However, I don't see why they would be larger. The line that I heard at Convulsion was that every species _necessarily_ had at least one fully-intelligent member. I've seen lots of theories on how intelligent creatures might come around, such as spirits being involved in the conception, but no-one seems to know why it is _necessary_ for one member of each species to be intelligent, or what would happen if it was killed, ir is it immortal (was there one of each species present at the Hill of Gold? ;-) )

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>The description of how one of Sartar's
>descendants stole the knowledge of building towers from the dwarves
>might imply that the Sartarites were using sound building ideas coupled
>with hard work, but this doesn't really fit with the feeling I have for
>their largely wild and barbaric culture.

If the 'power' of tower-building was ritually stolen on a Quest, might not that power manifest differently when wielded by Orlanthi than by Dwarves? ZZ has the power of Death, but he does not use a sword. I like your description, and think it can easily fit in with the power being stolen from Dwarves, even thought the techniques are different.

>A nice by-product of having bound spirits watching over the roads, is
>that lone travelers would have people to talk to along the way...
>It's
>nice to think of the bridge itself fighting back, as lunar sappers try
>and undermine its foundations, as they retreat from Argrath's Orlanthi.

I think the spirit would mostly be dedicated to protecting the bridge, but someone like Argrath probably knows how to awaken the bridge-spirit and get it to do more stuff.

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Simon Hibbs, My Brother, RuneQuest Referee And Player:
>you could probably count the number of Humakti in Pamaltela on the
>fingers of one hand - a Morokanth's. ... the few theists are well and
truly stuffed.

So I'm going to have problems getting my divine magic back then, am I? Well then, how do you fancy rolling randomly for your spell spirits, eh? Hmmm, Block Pagan looks like an interesting spell...

PHIBBS_at_compuserve.com
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PHibbs Tamworth, UK

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| Phil Hibbs | What immortal hand or eye dare frame thy fearful symmetry? |

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