Re: Foggy pirates

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_cs.ucc.ie>
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 04:41:35 GMT


Nils:
> Another possibility is that the Zabdamar of today are
> very much into mysticism. If so, they won't take active
> action against intruding pirates

Sez the man who below, pioneers 'Mystic Fog-lamps' as a concept. ;-) I think they definitely include mysticism in their practice (likely somewhat unusually for merfolk, I'm guessing), though certainly mixed in with lots of other stuff (like this is news, as previously discussed, in re, oh, everywehere else). It's probably fairly manifest, too, going by Kahar's exemplar.

> they won't have much
> material wealth for the pirates to be interested in and
> they will be very well protected against agression.

In a sense, one might argue, the fog is a manifestation of this: concealment, illusion, as 'mystical side-effect' from the circumstances of the area's origin, and the practices that follow on from that, etc.

I don't see them getting robbed by the pirates, certainly: if they have any rich settlements, I'm guessing they're either underwater, or up in the fog-banks... Though allegedly there are some islands in there somewhere...

> No no, the onboard mystic doesn't destroy the fog by
> refuting it, he just refutes its effect on his vision.

Ah, I see! So, that disposes of one problem, though what to do about the Zabdamar chewing off the mizzen-mast? ;-)

Of course, the Z. aren't very numerous, so it's likely not quite as dangerous as I'm making it sound. You *could* easily sail from one side to the other, meeting no-one but barnacles, provided your navigation is up to snuff. And the pirates there are almost certainly not looking for *you*, so you could consider yourself very unfortunate if they pillage your vessel and plank-walk you, purely opportunistically. But if the Z. do decide to pick on you, in their own domain, I reckon you're pretty hosed, at least if you're not Armed For Fireberg...

Cheers,
Alex.


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