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, Sun, 21 Aug 1994, part 1 Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM Content-Return: Prohibited Precedence: junk X-RQ-ID: Intro This is the RuneQuest Daily Bulletin, a mailing list on the subjects of Avalon Hill's RPG and Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha. It is sent out once per day in digest format. More details on the RuneQuest Daily and Digest can be found after the last message in this digest. --------------------- From: CHEN190@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (Peter Metcalfe, CAPE Canty) Subject: The Blue Wizard switches bodies Message-ID: <01HG59JDSJUQECZKY2@csc.canterbury.ac.nz> Date: 21 Aug 94 09:37:13 GMT X-RQ-ID: 5794 Lords of the Runes ------------------ Jonas admits my correction on Annilla's runes but says that s few other people have cited an older moon diety. This is of course Entekos who is according to according to Mr P. in the Gods wall at postion II-1. In a commentary he cites her as Goddess of Calm, Lady of the Summer air, Mother of Moons and Queen of the Air. As is obvious to people with a faction of God Learnerism, this is in fact Molanni Calm Air. Since Annilla was already old before Murharzarm was crowned and Umath young at this time, I do not believe that Molanni (Umaths granddaughter via Vadrus) really is the mother of moons. This is not to say that there is a Pelorian mother of moons; in Annilla's case however her mother was (originally) Nakala and later on, herself. I do admit the possibility that the Red Goddess was in fact the original holder of the rune before she was broken and that being raised gives her the doubled moon rune. In any case, we will have to wait for the Lunar Book (any idea on its title, people?) for the answer to be settled. As for Jonas's last question, I believe on information contained in Digest vol8, that the runes are actually god learner constructs invented by the evil fools themselves as shorthand to explain what they saw using the Runequest sight. I know it is stated that the Doraddi and the Kralori in fact had their own runes and the Gods Wall gives Lodril a single rune as opposed to the two runes we would use to describe Lodril so I think that the Pelorians used a indigenous system before being flooded by the EWF and/or the Carmanians. As for the Runes of Gorgorma (myself asked what they were, damn and blast these pesky god learners!), the darkness rune with the bar through it is shadow as stated in the Moorgarki/Qualyorni write up in Troll Gods whereas the Filled in Earth Rune actually represents Malign Earth as shown by Maran Gor who has this rune, her cult is written up in ToTRM #6. Grogorma, I have assumed carries the Dragonpower rune which I believe to be invented by the Emperor Daruda. Hyenas ------ Someone (I forget who) was looking to hard at the pictures in Nomad Gods and wondered whether Gloranthan Hyenas were man/hyenas or more like real world hyenas. Sandy did a write up of the ten tribes of prax in one of the digests. there it is stated that a hyena is used by the Morokanth as an analogue to the dog whom the Morokanth don't like and vice versa. So we can safely assume that the gloranthan hyena is actually remarkably similar to its RW counterpart and that the picture of Hyena in Nomad Gods was that of the Hyena God. However, RW hyenas are quite unusal in their own way. The female of the species has some interesting anatomical features that I shall not discuss in this family orientated mailing list (except to say it's related to sex organs). Interested readers may instead refer to Scientific American which contains an article involving Hyenas (along with photographs) which was published at the most a year ago (I love to give you the exact reference, but the library is shut at the moment). I bring this up mainly because I have now realized why those Gray Sages had difficulty in observing 'that rarity' a female broo even though RoC states that it makes up 15% of the Broo population. Cheers Peter Metcalfe (aka Blue Wizard) --------------------- From: sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com (Sandy Petersen) Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Sat, 20 Aug 1994 Message-ID: <9408201847.AA07743@idcube.idsoftware.com> Date: 20 Aug 94 06:47:39 GMT X-RQ-ID: 5795 David Cake: >But fear not, the Great David Switch can still go ahead - I believe >the appropriate Davids are Hall and Gadbois, both distribute TOTRM, >and Mr Gadbois is the American resident, so the Great David Switch >should have no problem in making him the editor as well. A brilliant solution. David Cake should be commended for his selfless contribution to this plan, especially as he himself will probably prove to be one of the infamous False Davids, with no basis in reality, and hence his functions may be completely subsumed by one of the other Davids. Klaus: >BTW why do Americans call the elk "moose"? I give up. Why do English call the Moose "elk", when the wapiti is obviously the One True Elk. "Red Deer", indeed. *scoff* I also think that Europeans should rename the creature that they miscall a "badger", since it is not the same species as the One True Badger, though clearly a close relative. Jonas Schiott >you english-speakers have compounded the problem by giving them >[moose] a goofy name as well. Damn straight. I don't regard this as compounding the problem, but as fitting the punishment to the crime. >just as I suspected: it's an American thing. Being an "American thing" is, of course, Powerful Evidence of the subject under consideration being completely wrong-headed, but is not proof positive. >I couldn't find hyenas in the Gloranthan bestiary. They're in the Prax Bestiary. No doubt everyone is hankering after stats for 'em, so here goes: characteristic average STR 2d6+6 13 CON 3d6 10-11 SIZ 2d6+6 13 INT 5 5 POW 3d6 10-11 DEX 2d6+6 13 Move 7 Avg. Hit Pts: 12 Armor: 2 pt fur weapon SR attk% damage bite 8 40+0 1d8+1d4 NOTE: once a hyena hits with its bite, it can choose to hang on and keep biting the same location each round. Keep rerolling the attack% to see if the hyena gets a critical, but it automatically retains its grip and keeps doing damage unless it rolls a fumble. Gloranthan Hyenas are like the earth types. In Genertela, they live in Prax, the Wastes, and Pent. There are also hyenas in Pamaltela. Hyenas hunt in packs at night, but are happy to scavenge, and usually a gang of hyenas follows a few miles behind any Praxian clan. In combat, hyenas often go for aimed blows at their enemy's legs, trying to crush the leg bones and force them down. "Hyena", the spirit being, is somewhat humanoid in shape, with a hyena's head and hairy body. He is not hostile, but is rather disgusting. Peter (now conveniently combined) asks: >Can anyone tell me what the runes for Gogorma (GoG) are called? Shadow and Earth. There are, of course, two Earth Runes, one representing the Earth (benign) and the other the Earth (malign). Gorgorma has the malign variety. Dave Dunham: >We know there are Gloranthan dogs, wolves, and hyenas. Are there >coyotes? Since most of Genertela is, of course, like unto North American during the Pleistocene despite the annoyingly European human cultures, I would assume that there are coyotes. There's room for them in the Wastes, Pent, the Kingdom of Ignorance, and anywhere else that wolves may not thrive. I assume there's porcupines and we know there's skunks (because of the requirement that Skunk Hsunchen ambush the party someday). Heck, there's probably rattlesnakes. However, I believe that the Genertelan bear is not the American black bear, but the European brown bear, Ursus arctos (same species as American grizzly). There might be some smaller bears in Teshnos or southern Kralorela, but they're probably sun bears, not black bears. Tim Minas >How come, if the priest in CoP was Etyries, he had to fulfil an >Issaries curse? The cult of Etyries and the cult of Issaries are exceedingly similar in structure and mythos. They were even MORE alike before I developed the cult of Etyries for GoG ;) But I can think of two reasons for an Etyries cult requirement to fulfill the reconstruction of Genert. (A) Etyries is a daughter of Issaries, and her priests inherit most of his strictures. (B) Etyries has knowingly taken upon herself the particular quest to restore Genert, for if Genert is fixed by HER priests, then that will be proof that she is Garzeen's real deity, not that dumb ol' Issaries, and the Lightbringer cult will be shaken to the core. --------------------- From: Argrath@aol.com Subject: Six Million Lunar Man Message-ID: <9408202220.tn11354@aol.com> Date: 21 Aug 94 02:20:41 GMT X-RQ-ID: 5796 Bob Luckin says: >We have the hyenas - we can rebuild him I don't know when I've laughed so long--thanks for making my day! Klaus asks: >BTW why do Americans call the elk "moose"? It's from an Algonquian word meaning "he strips or eats off (trees and shrubs)." "Wapiti" is a Shawnee word meaning "white rump." "Elk" is from the Old English. While these are all woody words, not the least bit tinny, they are not as woody as "caribou." Klaus goes on to say: >Are you saying that the spell should work on one acre, rather >than the land a man can plow in a day, or that a man can plow an >acre in a day? The term "acre" originally was rather fuzzy, and meant precisely the land a man could plow in a day. This is the way the term is properly understood in the Bless Crops spell, rather than as 43,560 square feet. Surveying was very fuzzy in pre-modern Europe, and even into the twentieth century. Land boundaries were defined in deeds by descriptions like "Starting from an elm in the line of the land which Jack Smith died seized of, proceeding in a northerly direction to a pile of rocks on the bank of the South Branch, thence with the meanderings of the stream in a westerly direction thirty paces, ..." Surveying is still pretty damn fuzzy--just this week I discovered a non-existent parcel (vapor dirt?). >In the latter case I find your calculations difficult to >believe. Believe it. T.J. Minas says: > Second up: Rune spell renewal. A couple of related points here, first, > Sanctify. Like all Ritual spells, this lasts 1 hr/pt, ... Would you care to provide a citation to support this statement? Axis Mundi is specifically a 1 hour duration, but then again it's a Summoning spell, not Ceremony. I'm not aware of any rule that states a duration for Sanctify or its cousin Worship (Deity). In any case, your treatment of sanctified space as holy to the deity even after the spell runs out is a distinction without a difference: if the area is still holy, the Sanctify is still having an effect. --Martin --------------------- From: MOBTOTRM@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au Subject: The David Swap Message-ID: <01HG65TP80YK8ZE39V@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au> Date: 21 Aug 94 22:28:40 GMT X-RQ-ID: 5797 G'day all, ___________ Bless Crops Klaus writes: >In Sun County farmers are not tempted to move the stones marking the >borders of their fields (to steal a bit of land from their neighbours), >since that would dispell their Bless Crops spells. This must mean that >a very large number of fields, probably all, are blessed. Ah, probably. Maybe these stones are something like matrixes, which amplify the effect across the County, a bit like a power grid system. Just before the planting, maybe all the Ernalda Priestesses get together on Summons Hill just outside the temple and perform the ceremony, sending their Blessing through the Earth in all directions (some sort of cheesy special effect is in order here). Note that there has been a rumour going around lately of a "great treasure" under one of the farmstones, which threatens to lead to an agricultural disaster as farmers and other treasure-seekers are tempted to peek underneath (see SUN COUNTY and, in particular, the Jaxarte story and Rabbit Hat Farm for more details). >It also means that Yelmalion society is not very trusting of the >honesty of farmers. You bet. ___________________________ The Red Emperor's Body Hair >No, [Yosemite] Sam is far too hairy to be the Red Emperor. The princess >in MOB's Lunar Coders, from Strangers in Prax, suggest that the Red >Emperor is hairless. He is, therefore, Elmer Fudd. Ah, but Anderida (a great-great grand-daughter of the Red Emperor) is descended from an earlier Emperor, maybe even the original (pre-Sheng) one. I know the current Emperor is into bodily depilation, perhaps to fit the stylised image everyone expects. However, I suspect he has a luxuriant head of hair, and, I'm sure, mutton-chop sideburns. If the original emperor was indeed Elmer Fudd, he would be known to one and all as the "Wed Emperwor". >An Australian-made cartoon series, King Arthur and His Square Knights of >the Round Table, may serve for the West. MOB may remember this from his >childhood. It was Australian? This is not a good advertisement for the quality of early 70's Aussie animation! I have vague memories of it, but was more fixated with the Thunderbirds when I was of that age (one of the first great shocks of my life was seeing the strings when I was about 5). ________________ The David Switch Sandy Discovers: >I've now discovered (via Henk) that David Cake lives in Oz. I now >must argue strenuously against my earlier proposed switch of Cake and >Hall, because relocating TotRM to Oz would be harmful to American >interests. Too late, Sandy! Reaching Moon Megacorp's tentacles extend even unto the land Down Under, and at least three issues of Tales have originated from here. In keeping with the journalistic standards of Rupert Murdoch*, it was us who brought you the Page 3 Dryad (issue #4) and the depraved cover of issue #8 (expurgated for our prudish American readers). *Rupert Murdoch, ex-Australian media magnate and now US citizen, owner of such quality papers as "The Sun" (UK) and "The Picture" (Aus), famous for its annual $10,000 "Match the Nude Models' Faces to Their Bums" competition. ---------------------