Thomas Gottschall
>when an Elmal worshipper does the Hill of Gold HQ (probably a weaker
form of it as initiation) he loses his fire powers
>if he succeeds in the quest (meaning he does like his god did). But
what does he gain ? Just nothing ?
First, to clarify: an Elmal/Yelmalion DOES have fire powers before he
goes on the Hill of Gold quest. True, his cult does not teach Fireblade,
Ignite, etc., but certainly if he went to a shaman, he would be capable
of learning such a spell (his cult might, I agree, disapprove).
After he returns from the Hill of Gold, he has lost his fire
powers. He could not know cast Fireblade even if he learned it. In
addition, he can no longer light a fire by ordinary, mundane methods. He
has to have other people light his cooking fires, for instance.
What does he gain? Immortality. Here is a brief rehash of the
Hill of Gold quest (it's the same for
Elmal/Yelmalio-elf/Yelmalio-human).
- To prepare, you need to rescue someone from the forces of darkness
and get, as a reward, golden armor and weapons (gold-encrusted armor is
good enough).
- Just at sundown, you begin hiking up the hill. As you go, you can
look for special crystals of Yelmalio's blood. At some point, you are
ambushed by a storm barbarian. Because of the location of the Hill of
Gold, this is almost invariably an Orlanthi Wind Lord. You fight, he
wins. He takes your armor and weapons. I guess it would be barely
possible for the Light Son to beat the Wind Lord, but because it's an
ambush, it sure doesn't seem likely to me. Often, a Sureshot
Thunderstone or a Teleport dropping from above is the first sign the
enemy is around. Of course, "beating" the Orlanthi means you are in
danger of losing the quest -- but some tough Light Sons try to vanquish
the Wind Lord just to show how cool they are ... then they surrender
their arms to him, thus preparing themselves for the next stage. I don't
think this works too often.
After the Orlanthi ambush, most beginner Light Sons drop out of
the quest -- they've gotten a crystal or two of Yelmalio's Blood, and
they dare not try for more.
Vingans are perfectly able to go on the Hill of Gold Quest, and
this is where you'd meet such a woman as a Light Son -- as a hostile
storm force. She'd ambush you, beat you up, and take your arms and
armor. Not much different from your point of view than the Wind Lord,
except that it's more humiliating for the Light Son, and will probably
result in a permanent vendetta.
Remember, when you encounter an opponent on a heroquest, it's
hardly ever someone random. If you already have storm enemies, _they're_
the ones you meet here.
- If you _do_ progress, naked and weaponless, the next event is an
ambush by the forces of darkness -- typically a Death Lord of ZZ. This
is even less winnable than the Wind Lord fight. The Death Lord wounds
you, breaks your legs, eats your liver, etc. You stay alive only by dint
of moral fiber, tons of heal spells, force of will, etc.
- Continuing to crawl up the hill, it starts to snow. You're naked,
bleeding. This sucks. Then you encounter the Cold Woman (think Yuki
Onna). She is seductive and tempting; her most powerful temptation is
her power to give you immunity to the cold. You have to resist her
diligently or cease being a Yelmalion/Elmali/whatever. Finally rejected,
she shows her true nature, and blankets you in ice. Again, survival is
tough. Good luck.
- Surviving the ice treatment, you finally make it to the top of the
hill. You are now attacked by hordes of chaos parasites. Defeat by these
horrors means physical and spiritual destruction or, worse,
metamorphosis. You have to destroy the chaos parasites (the only enemies
that you're actually supposed to defeat in combat on this quest). Some
attack vs. your spirit instead of your body, so watch out.
- By the time you've done all this, it's just about dawn. The sun comes
up, and you are there to greet it. You have proven that you can take the
worst the universe can dish out. Against all odds, you have survived.
You are THE survivor.
- On your return, you find that you are immortal. You cannot be killed.
Even if you are chopped into fragments and scattered about, those
fragments are still alive. (Of course, you're screwed in that case, but
hey, who said immortality was all beer and skittles?) If your head is
chopped off, it can be reattached with a Heal spell. You brush off Sever
Spirits as if they were Detect spells.
Soon you'll ask, why aren't there dozens of centuries-old Light
Sons who've done this quest? Because eventually Light Sons who are doing
this kind of thing retire to the Sky Realm, where they live on forever
in one of the many star fortresses. Note: you do _not_ get to accompany
Yelm on his traverse of the universe -- you have demonstrated your right
to exist in the surface world and never go to the land of the dead.