Just a small myth that occurred to me yesterday.
Once, when Issaries was on his travels, he killed and ate a wild pig. Being a wise and thrifty god, he was careful to make use of everything that he did not eat. He sold the hide and the tusks and just about everything else, but when he was done, he could find no one to buy the knucklebones of the pig.
As he sat there trying to imagine what to do with them, he started throwing them down on the ground. As he did this for a while, he realized that he had a fun game here, trying to guess what pattern they might fall into. It wasn't long before he had invented the game of knucklebones.
Just as he was doing this, Eurmal came along and watched him. Being Eurmal, he immediately saw a hundred different uses for the knucklebones.
"Good friend Issaries," he said, in his friendliest voice, "that is an
interesting toy you have there. Will you sell it to me?"
Never one to pass up an opportunity for profit, the Wandering God replied " Certainly, if you have anything I might want."
"If you give me that toy, " said Eurmal" I'll teach you a great secret
that I have, called Lying. A lie is a form of illusion, making something
into something it isn't. If you knew how to do this, imagine how much
profit you could make."
"But if I sell people something that isn't what they think it is,
they'll never buy from me again. In the long run, I'd lose more than I
gain."
"But you could tell them that something was just a little bit nicer than
it was and could ask just a little bit more for it than you really want.
Then, if they choose not to buy, you could lower your price and tell them
that they were getting it cheaper, which would make the item more
appealling, and you'd still get the price you actually want for it"
Issaries pondered this over, and decided that it would be worth at least trying it out, especially since the knucklebones hadn't cost him anything in the first place. So he traded away the knucklebones.
And that is how Issaries learned about lying, which he prefers to call haggling, while Eurmal received the knucklebones, which to this day still serve all manner of cheats and thieves.
I don' see any way to use this as a heroquest, but when Eurmali teach
Issarions associated cult magic, it is traditional to offer a set of
knucklebones as a sacrifice orgift.
Andrew E. Larsen
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