King of Dragon Pass suggests several useful possibilities. One of the ones I like is the secret of winning without fighting. If you want a relevant close combat skill, I'd give them a feat of "disarm with bare hands"-a sort of hapkido trick.
Another possibility would be the inverse of that horrible Humakti heroquest.
(What was it called? It had something to do with crucifying a bunch of
CA's.) The trick to winning the heroquest would be to go willingly to heal
a rift in the community. Coming back from the dead would be minor problem
to deal with afterwards, of course.
Another possibility would be the Arroin quest, in which the CA attempts to heal chaos and fails. I can't imagine why anyone would want to embark on it, but its there.
Being far too ignorant about Peloria, I should probably keep my mouth shut,
but it feels to me like Chalana Arroy is one of those hold-over goddesses
from pre-Dara Happan mythology. There is mention of the White Healer in
Entekosiad on page 10 ("FaElsor and the Serpent"). The footnote equates her
to Erissa of Dara Happan myth, which means the GroY is a good source, too.
GRoY page 16 indicates that the White Lady (whom I take to be Erissa) tried,
but failed, to heal Murharzarm when Entekos/Rebellus
Terminus/Ernaldus/Orlanth killed him. GRoY page 44 says that Antirius
(facile reading: Elmal) rescued the heart of Oslira and gives it out through
the White Lady, whom I take to be Erissa. TFS page 61 indicates that the
Red Emperor summoned the White Lady in person when Sheng's interference in
ritual caused his illness and death.
Also, Entekosiad provides some (perhaps faulty) linguistic ideas. "Aron" means tree in some horribly old language per page 12 ("The Eldest Peoples"). "Na" means one per page 71. I have no idea if they are supposed to be the same languages, of course. And you'd have to figure out something new for the "Chala" part, but so far, I've got something about one tree.
That brings up the elvish twist: that the Chalana Arroy figure (Chalaneron) is a dark age hero and Arroin (Eron) is the main Aldryami water god (the god of the life-giving/healing waters, I think). There are probably paths there that are unexplored by humans for all the budding Arkati shamans out there.
Finally, as for the cast of accompanying characters, I'd use whatever background you can find to write myths that fit the culture from which your characters hail. Then write in appropriate companions. If the companion you've written in does not fit the characters, substituting in a character where some other worshipper might be more appropriate just makes the HQ more difficult, unpredictable, and interesting.
Chris Lemens
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