Mudsharks and ancient cradles

From: Bernuetz, Oliver: WPG <Bernuetz.Oliver_at_cbsc.ic.gc.ca>
Date: Fri, 06 Feb 1998 16:39:04 -0500


Erik Nolander asked:

>What exactly is a mudshark, and what does it look like? The only place
>I've found it is in RoC, and there only with stats and not a
>description. Come to think of it, I think Zappa mentions "mudshark" in a
>song as well...

Mudsharks look like mudskippers with teeth. For more pictures of mudskippers
than you probably need go to:

http://www.ozemail.com.au/~thebobo/mudpic.htm

Mudskippers are an amphibious species of fish that live in mangrove swamp. They're quite comical to watch hopping around. Mudsharks would be comical too if it weren't for the teeth.


Richard Develyn proposed an outline of events for his ancient cradle suggestion. Here's my comments followed by an alternative scenario proposal.

>1. Cradle floats down Zola Fel and stops / snarles up at one of the bogs
>(in SC) when SunStop happens (as before).

The bogs actually start just south of Sun County.

>1a: "Gold Wheel Dancer": There may or may not be a GWD aboard. Where can
>I find out about these things? What would have happened to it during
>SunStop?

The only place to learn about Gold Wheel Dancers (other than cryptic references
to their extinction) is here on the Digest.

>4. Trickster knows what it is, and also knows that the SunStop can't
>last. So it drops the baby off somewhere and hurries back to the cradle.

This seems kind of strange. The Sun has stopped moving in the sky and all this shaman can think about is looting a cradle? No one as far as I know
(and I may have misinterpreted your comment) knows what exactly the Sunstop was.

>5. Before Trickster reaches it, the SunStop stops. The cradle's defenses
>re-activate. The GWD (if that is what it is), or maybe the cradle
>automatically, causes itself to sink into the bog, awaiting the return
>of the giant baby. Anyone inside is caught and held in stasis.

Nitpicking here but it would of had to sink into the river and then later be covered by
bog. There's no way a boat that large is going to move over the surface of a
bog. The Zola Fel flows through the bogs. Personally I don't like the bog idea
because it'd be almost impossible to dig the cradle up. You'd have to build coffer dams, drain the water, etc., etc. Unless you're planning on saying that
it rises magically?

>6a: "FoundChild": I did wonder if this baby could have been *the*
>FoundChild. I think this would mean this incident had to have happened
>during GodTime, which raises lots more questions. Is this an avenue of
>thought I should pursue?

Foundchild was "found" during the Darkness by HelpWoman (or Hearth Mother in Balazaring myth) so this event occurs long after.

>6b: "Refuge": Where would HelpWoman have taken the child? There's
>Strockbjorn out in the Wastes. I would prefer (for campaign purposes)
>south towards the mouth of Zola Fel. The child would have had to remain
>hidden - or somehow un-noticed all this time.

This is going to be tough. How do you hide a 30 foot infant? Who's feeding it? Who's (ugh) changing it? Who's going to make a 30 foot baby do anything? My feeling is that the level of divine impact (i.e. HelpWoman's
presence) on the RW is unprecedented.

>8. HelpWoman refuses. Her motherly aspect at the fore, she's insensed
>about the idea of floating babies down rivers at all, let alone to the
>underworld. She firmly but politely informs Paragua that the child will
>be returned to its cradle when it's right and proper to do so (i.e. when
>it's a bit older). Paragua has little choice in the matter (you can't
>argue with a woman over children).

Umm, I don't quite see the point of this. Giant babies go to hell to grow up.
It's not going to be any better when the baby's a little older. HelpWoman may not recognize the necessity of the trip but if she doesn't why would she agree to let the baby go when it's older?

>HelpWoman has decided that it's time the baby (now a toddler) be
>returned to its cradle. She has decided that it's too dangerous to walk
>the child up to its cradle, so she needs someone to bring the cradle
>down.

Is your campaign supposed to take place in the 1600s? If so I don't think giants grow that slowly. (If anyone thinks differently let me know.) You're talking over 1200 years after the SunStop. That's a long time. Now if you're planning on running in an earlier era that's different. I would
think that after that length of time you'd end up with a psychotic giant teenager at least.

>HelpWoman isn't going to play her hand straight away. Rather, there are
>clues and pointers in the temple to get the PCs going, but it's going to
>be a while before they realise what they are involved in (realisation
>should happen when the other cradle turns up - this incident will
>re-inforce to HelpWoman just how careful she needs to be). However,
>HelpWoman will always be around, always easily contactable by any PC
>shaman, and always co-operative. When the time is right, she will lead
>them through the last adventures necessary to obtain the wherewithall to
>be able to raise the cradle. Then the PCs, once they've dealt with
>anything trapped aboard in stasis for centuries, will need to steer the
>cradle down towards Corflu (whose denizens will not believe their eyes),
>there to rendezvous with the giant baby girl who will hop on board and
>resume her journey to the underworld. The PCs may, optionally, stay on
>board.

Again, this is a lot of direct divine intervention. Another question is why are the PCs motivated to do this? Why do they care what happens to a giant baby?

The wherewithal to raise the cradle would be an enormous number of laborers with the correct knowledge or a dredge. Why are the Lunars at Corflu going to let this Cradle go by? There's a lot of them present, including
the Watchdog to stop the Cradle. The original scenario postulated a lot of warriors and priests being on the cradle when it hit Corflu.

Richard goes on to describe the two versions of the Lost Cradle story and suggests that the horrible baby monster version is too high powered. I don't think that's necessarily true. It depends on what the baby was turned into. Here's a possible scenario (building on what I sent about the Mirror of Amusements):

  1. The baby (a boy) was sailing down the Zola Fel in 374. As the Cradle was passing by the steep bluffs around Condor Crag the Sunstop occured. The Cradle stopped as its propelling magic stopped. The riverbank which had been shored up with magic collapsed burying the Cradle. Inside the Cradle the baby had been playing with the Mirror of Amusement when he was transformed into Cwim. The sudden halting of the Cradle and stopping of magic resulted in the Mirror rolling into a corner facing away from the Baby leaving him in his monstrous form. Terrified the Baby fled the Cradle clawing his way out of the landslide. In the process of fleeing into the Wastes the Baby buries the Cradle again. This puts the Cradle into stasis and prevents the automated magical defenses from notifying the Giants. Since the Baby is now Cwim the Giants cannot find him nor associate the Cwim with the Baby. Cwim spends centuries wandering the Wastes looking for something he doesn't know about.

The Present

2) Erosion exposes part of the Cradle which reactivates some of the defenses. The defenses (Gold Wheel Dancer?) notifies the giants that the Cradle was buried and the Baby lost. They don't know where the Baby is or what may have happened to it. The Giants decide to reactivate their connections with an old Praxian secret society, The Big Boot's Friends.
(They do this so someone can investigate without attracting the attention a Giant would). This society still exists in Praxian society as a sort of old boys
club for the select few. The leaders are shocked at being contacted by Giants
but agree to send out some braves to investigate. Suspecting potential rich rewards representatives from a number of tribes are sent to the site of the Cradle to investigate. Reaching the Cradle they find a party of baboons who had partially looted the Cradle losing some of their party to the defenses.

Entering the Cradle the party finds the guardian, a Gold Wheel Dancer? some other species? and discover that the Baby had been transformed by the Mirror. The Mirror keeps a record of transformations and the party is told to look for a giant with one head and three bodies. (They may have to return to Pavis to learn what this is). The trick now will be to find Cwim
(who isn't really a murderous monster just a poor lost baby looking for (I can't remember who suggested it) a cuddle and a ba ba (bottle)) and persuade him to return to the Cradle where he can look into the Mirror again

and be transformed back into his normal form. The trick after this will be to
get the Cradle unburied, on the River and get it past Corflu. Possibilities are
that collected tribes could dig it out or trolls (unlikely considering their poor
relations with Praxians) could do so.

This version would have some fighting but it's not all that murderous. The MGF possibilities of persuading Cwim to do something and using the Mirror without mishap seem very high. (Now why did I have to go and move my campaign to Balazar?)

Anyways those are my suggestions/comments. Either version would work.

Oliver D. Bernuetz
bernuetz.oliver_at_cbsc.ic.gc.ca

P.S. Nice story Simon.


End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #406


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