The Mostali know an enchantment called Ward Blow in Elder Secrets which allows armor to protect against a critical hit. But I would not allow this spell to fall into the hands of non-mostali. I suppose the mostali at Bad Deal can sell this sort of enchanted armor but the prices would be prohibitively expensive.
Heikki Raappana:
>I was writing a seabased scenario and an interesting question arose: At
>the Closing of the seas, no man was able to sail out to open seas, before
>Dormal the Sailor came with his Open Seas -sorcery spell. Thus came the
>Opening of the Seas. Am I right?
Correct.
>As far as i know, no other cult teaches "Open Seas" ceremony, but do they
>anyway? There are Tsankst-worshipping pirates of Vormain and
>Kogag-worshipping sailor trolls of Jrustela for example. What about
>mostali-sailors (from Slon) with their ships made of stone.
>Is Dormal's "Open Seas" the only way to penetrate the Closing, how do the
>other cults and other-god-than-Dormal-worshipping sailors do it?
IMO they do. The 'Open Seas' spell was brought south from Pasos to Jrustela by the Vadeli. I believe the Uz simply caught a Vadeli-flagged ship (but not necessarily crewed by Vadeli) and gained the secret from the crew (it's hard to keep a secret when an Uz is chewing one's legs off).
The Masloi are stated to have have stolen the secret from the Vadeli which precipitated a Naval War. The Eastern Isles do not use Dormal's prayers but use instead Haragalan prayers (according to the RQ Companion). The Haragalans had gained the secrets of the Opening from Kralori Merchants but for some reason decided to make their own prayers.
How the Slon mostali gained the secrets of the Opening is mysterious. They can't have gotten it at Jrustela for the mostali there do not make boats. I think a human ship sailed from Umathela to Slon and was captured and/or shipwrecked which allowed the Decamony there to gain the secrets of the Opening.
>I have understood that the Closing was some kind of powerful magic of
>sorcerers of Brithos Island, and was aimed against the Godlearners.
The spell was most probably by the Brithini but the purpose is unknown. Nobody has managed to go to Brithos and find out what really happened.
An unpublished (but less than trustworthy BTW) source speaks of an invasion by Fronelans (who were not God Learners at the time according to Codex #1). _If_ true, that would put the mention of open ports in Brithos in a new light (ie having declared themselves 'open' to the invaders). So the spell could have simply been a panicked Doomsday remedy to save Brithos from complete catastrophe and the destruction of the God Learner Empire (who were their allies at one point and may have still been) could have just been collateral damage. It would also explain why Zzabur was plotting to sink Fronela in Snodal's Time. But this is all IMO.
>Does
>the Closing affect the seaborn cultures such as Waertagi too, or was it
>just to keep the land-dwellers out from the open seas and was the Closing
>as powerful in Pamaltela and in Eastern Islands (they are pretty far from
>Brithos) as it was in Genertela?
It affected the Waertagi who had to sail down Magasta's Pool. The returned Waertagi are said to be searching the Sea of Brithos for the vanished Isle to extract their revenge.
Pamaltela was cursed by the Closing although at least two seas were navigable - the Koraru bay between Fonrit and Laskal and the Maslo Sea between Flanch (Onlaks) and Elamle. In addition, the Edrenlin Isles (of the coast of Elamle) and the Tortugax archipelago (of the coast of Dinal) were also navigable during the Closing.
The Closing did not operate among the Eastern Isles but dissipated instead. So one could sail between the Isles but not from the Eastern Isles to Kralorela. The Isles of Vormain are not part of the East Isles and so were isolated from it although I think they could from one isle of Vormain to another. The People of the Jewelled Isle of Mokato believe that the Closing was sent as punishment against them. To thwart the Closing, they renounced their Eastern Seas Empire (which had ruled all the Ten Thousand Isles) and do not leave their Isle today for fear of reactivating the Closing. The renunciation of the Empire was accompanied by a sharp downturn in inter-Isle commerce and communication which wasn't revitalized until Kralori traders arived with the secrets of the Opening.
Some more details about the Closing and the Opening can be found in the Genertela Book 1 and the Runequest companion.
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