From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer) To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest) Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily) Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Sat, 02 Jul 1994, part 6 Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM Content-Return: Prohibited Precedence: junk --------------------- From: jcw7@postoffice.mail.cornell.edu (Joseph Christopher Wehman) Subject: The Basmoli Message-ID: <199407020424.AAA04688@postoffice.mail.cornell.edu> Date: 1 Jul 94 20:24:48 GMT X-RQ-ID: 4983 I've been trying to play a Basmoli shaman and the only sources I have are the GoG, a copy of Codex, and a pre-release RQ4 book. Therefore I did the next best thing, made it up. Tell me what you think..... THE BASMOLI: The Basmoli are Hunschen nomads of Prax, a very primative people. The most important aspects of the Basmoli is that their totem animals, Lions, no longer live in Prax and that their god, Basmol, is "distant". Their tribal orginazation is into subgroups called prides consisting of 8-12 individuals. Prides are led by females and contain a war shaman(male). Females are warriors/hunters and men are warrior/hunters or shamans. There are about three females per male in a pride due to the fact that young males are driven out by older males when they reach maturity. Young males usually form small bands till they are old enough to challenge pride members to fights to the death. Though nomads, they have distinct territorial areas. Several prides are connected by one law shaman who serves as a moral force to preserve the "path" of the Lion. The Basmoli are a tall, dark skinned people who wear traditional praxian clothing, leather trews and jerkin. They are renowned for their hit and run tactics, utilizing speed and an initial javelin barage when closing. Basmoli prefer spears, javelins, and their fists for combat. Their war shamans provide them with spells like Ironhand,mobility, multimissle, and protection for such raids. Usually a quiet people who hunt sable, impala, and other herd animals, they have been known to explode in a series of raids of severe brutality. This stems from the death of Basmol, for they believe that when Basmol created the earth, he put animals on the earth solely to be hunted by the Basmoli and their lions. They say that the cattle,goat,rhino,sable,and impala people betrayed their "rightful" place and assaulted the Basmoli together. The Basmoli called upon Basmol and he drove the herds back, destroying the cattle and goat people completely. Tired and wounded, Basmol traveled back to his home in his "hunting grounds"(Basmoli understanding of the spirit plane) and was assaulted by Chaos. The Basmoli believe it was the same herd people who sent Choas. Chaos poisoned his blood and he slept. The Basmoli shamans surrounded his body to protect it till he woke again. The lions then disappeared from Prax and left the Basmoli angry and vengeful. Their present goal is to annihilate the herd people who betrayed them. They have nearly wiped out their nearest neighbors the rhino people. They wait for the One Shaman, who follows the "one true path" to awaken Basmol and return the lions to them. Basmoli Shamans: War Shaman: A war shamans duties are to teach magic to his people(2/season), protect lion spirits, take part in hunts, initiate new war shamans, aid Lions or Basmoli if in trouble, keep the stories of the pride alive, and plan and support raids. Also when they die they also must protect the body of Basmol until he awakens when they will be reborn as lions. Among their favorite shamanic powers are: self-resurrection,discorporation,magic attack, spirit mastery, and second sense. They are not forbidden any powers. Prefer the spirit spells: Spirit Screen, Ironhand,Protection,Countermagic,Demoralize,and Fanaticism. They are not forbidden any spirit magics. Divine magics are in the GoG. Taboos:Never allow a lion or Basmoli to suffer needlessly, always fight to the death. Some prides add that they may only fight with hands and teeth(Lion's Head divine spells). Law Shaman: A law shamans duties are to initial new shamans, adamantly keep the way of the Lion King, to individually perform the hunt in the "right" way, and preserve the Basmoli way of life. Identical shamanic powers, magic, and taboos except that they are required to learn self-resurrection and they must only fight with hands and teeth. They are trained as a war shaman and then chosen to replace their elder when he takes the Blessed Transformation(Described later). The Lion Quest: When a war shaman feels his time on the mundane plane growing short he teaches four right-thinking young males a bit of his arts and sends them off into the wilds to complete a quest. Only one will survive to complete his task, as is right. An apprentice shaman must seek out and bring a lion back to his pride. That apprentice is then the new shaman, taught the rest of the arts and his lion's Int awakened. When that lion dies, its spirit is trapped into its hide which is worn by the shaman till the day he dies. Then the spirit is released. Some prides have discontinued the Lion Quest because of the increasing time it takes to find a lion and because sometimes none come back. The One Shaman: Basically their legends say that any Basmoli shaman who follows the true path will enter the circle of dead shamans and awaken Basmol. But, if one strays too far away from the path, there is no way for him to do it. The One shaman is supposed to be powerful beyond his age and to be covered in "Death and Life and others". Basmoli Spirit: Kal'karrak(Beast) A powerful lion spirit who wanders and hunts on Basmol's hunting grounds(spirit plane). He deals heavily with Basmoli shamans and often oversees the acceptance of new shamans. He also leads Basmoli shamans to the Site of Basmol(described later) and makes them stay there when they die of old age or are unable to self-resurrect. To be contacted initially, a shaman(shamans only) must perform a ritual using a lion's hide and the corpse of a sable,impala,antelope or zebra that has been hunted and killed that same day. After the ritual, the shaman discorporates, taking the animal spirit with him. Shaman must make a successful spirit travel roll to find Kal'karrak. Shaman must make a sucessful animal lore roll when offering the animal spirit as a gift. If not Basmoli, the shaman then sacrifices 1pt of POW to form a link. He can teach Ironhand,Protection, Spirit Screen, Strength, and Sharptooth. Divine Magic: Blessed Transformation 5pt permanent, one use only This spell, correctly cast, turns the caster into a young sterile male lion, whose POW, Int and shamanic abilities remain the same. This spell is only offered to Basmoli law shamans after many years of service to his people. The casting requires the shaman's lion hide. The actual casting is a 1 week ritual costing an additional 3pts of POW worth of enchantments. If the enchant rolls are all successful, this represents a new life among the Basmol. If not the shaman dies in the ritual. Site of Basmol: A secluded area of the Spirit plane where the body of Basmol lies, surrounded by the spirits of dead Basmoli shamans, put there by Kal'karrack to protect the body. One might suggest that as more shamans die it becomes harder and harder for the One Shaman to enter the circle and awaken Basmol, making Kal'karrak more powerful among the Basmoli. This is purely conjecture, though. Basmoli shamans come to the edge of the circle to pray for the Basmoli divine magic(GoG). Basically the shamans face outward and stop ANYTHING that tries to enter. Once through the circle they can do no more. No one knows what is lurking inside, feeding upon a wounded god..... Examples of Prides: Pride of the Crimson Maw: Paint their mouths and jaws with the blood of recently slain animals when going on a raid. Never take any prisoners and are known to use every bit of the things that they kill. Shamans of this pride can only use hands and teeth. Pride of Kal'karrak: Live on Kal'karrak's former territory, especially reverent towards him. Sometimes he joins them on raids in the form of a giant lion. They have never lost a skirmish when he is with them. Shamans must fight with hands and teeth. Pride of the Stolen teeth: A cursed group of Basmoli whose teeth have been stolen from them for an ancient deed. They are scavengers who are barely tolerated by other Basmoli. In response to Bryan Maloney: Yes, I believe that shamans can be played as PCs in the proper circumstances. A shaman(i'll use what i have just written to explain) on the Lion Quest could be a PC with just about anybody(that wasn't afraid of him or could speak with him), but a full war shaman could not unless the entire party was Basmoli. Also a law shaman would make a better NPC due to their age(i.e. power). --------------------- From: vladt@interaccess.com (Kevin Rose) Subject: Wards and stuff Message-ID: <199407020652.BAA20616@home.interaccess.com> Date: 1 Jul 94 08:56:06 GMT X-RQ-ID: 4984 Pam Carlson: The easiest way to work the Wards trigger is to base it on the Find Enemy spell. So intent to harm the caster is required. Not necessarily physical harm, but some sort of intent to do something, such as stealing. A dog wandering in looking for a handout isn't trying to harm anyone. Your neighbors 6 year old chasing your child (child being considered chattle of the caster) during a fight could well be. (Gee, sorry my spell killed your daughter, but it was an acci ARRRG gurgle.) An animal that is not actively hostile would be able to wander through a ward with no problem. If it is considering the caster or his dependants as a meal it would be another matter. In the same way someone who is intending to steal from the occupants would set the ward off. A hungry dog that smells food and has a vague concept of stealing food (from the caster) is probably not hostile for the purposes of this spell. (But this is arguable.) Someone coming in with no hostile intent could enter, but if he stole something or attacked the caster or his dependents the ward would get him on the way OUT. Realisticly I don't think you could make it act as a giant bug zapper or roddent repeller. Their just isn't enough mind or intent there. (And it is gross also.) It might work against the bobcat after the sheep if A) A sheep had cast the spell, or B) The bobcat had a personal grudge against the caster. Otherwise, the answer is NO. It protects the caster. An option is to allow the caster to explictly state the trigger conditions, per the enchantment rules. This get pretty gross, so I would really think about this. The reason wards usually work on temples and such is because someone trying to steal from or attack a temple is automaticly an enemy of every member of the temple. If a Wind lord, while planning to kill the wrong thinking high priest of Orlanth, walks though a ward of the high priest it WILL go off. Again, the operative word in the description is "caster". Shape of the ward There is no requirement that it be square. Any quadralateral will work. I might suggest that at least a .5 meter width is essential, but that isn't what it says. The advantage of the area version over the linear version to protect a field or such (if you decide to let it work this way,) is that it will get the birds too. ---------------------