Re: Talk to soul

From: Andrew Dawson <asmpd_at_...>
Date: Sun, 08 Sep 2002 17:58:07 -0400


I don't like to say "that's impossible" a lot during my games; I'd rather pile on the modifiers. I also have a slightly different view of the penalties associated with using the Talk to Soul ritual. I am inclined to base the penalties on the Otherworld safety chart on NB p. 33. The first consideration for me would be whether or not there is an in-story reason that the ritual should work or not. For example, a reborn soul is enough reason for me to say the soul can't be contacted through this ritual, but that doesn't mean that the devotee couldn't find out from the ritual that the soul is unreachable (success/major victory) or reborn (critical success/complete victory).

Also, is this a ritual that may or sometimes requires the celebrant to cross over to the Other Side to talk to the soul? I wouldn't rule out crossing over or the need to perform a long ritual in the Inner World that could be just as difficult.

At 09:46 PM 9/7/2002 +1200, Peter Metcalfe wrote:
>At 09:01 AM 9/7/02 +0000, you wrote:
> >I would like to know how do you deal with 'Talk to Soul ritual' feat
> >(ST p. 195).
> >
> >Could you use it for essences and spirits of the dead? I suppose yes,
> >with the alien world penalty, but I'm not sure.
>
>Your guess accords with mine. You can't use it to contact people in Solace.

I would apply the Alien World penalty for interaction with a an essence or spirit (as on ST p. 197). I don't know the criteria for an essence to reach Solace, so I'm not sure what the ritual would do, but I can imagine it returning a "soul is unreachable/not knowable" result as I describe above.

If the celebrant crosses over, perhaps they can follow the trail of the soul by asking the advice of the entities they meet, a HQ through the Underworld maybe? This would probably require the celebrant to pass into Alien Worlds, which would make the quest even more dangerous.

> >Have the soul to stay in the Caverns of Silence or you could call the
> >soul when it is in the Path of the Dead, in the Court of Silence, in
> >the afterlife?
>
>In the Caverns of Silence is my guess. If it was in the Storm Realm
>(or another place), then it couldn't be summoned.

I think that Ty Kora Tek has working and usable relationships with the other members of the Storm Tribe. I would give a +5 to the ritual if the soul is located in the Caverns of Silence (as a devotee in own god's region of the God Plane on NB p. 33) and no bonus or penalty for other Storm Tribe deities' realms (again, as on NB p. 33). I would also allow a new feat (or even a more mundane ability) to aid the ritual further (by augmentation) for a soul in Humakt's, or maybe even Issaries', realms based on the working relationship described on ST p. 196. Perhaps followers of the other Storm Tribe deities could help in a ritual to talk to the soul of a follower of their particular deity. The Storm Tribe also includes Kolat and Serdrodosa, and they have demesnes accessible from the Storm Tribe god plane, so those spirits should be more easily contacted, maybe even at no penalty. Maybe all Earth Goddess souls/spirits (Serdrodosa) get a +5 bonus as though in the Caverns of Silence (this follows from the A/TKT write up and makes the Earth Goddess dead slightly easier to contact than the non-Earth Goddess dead).

> >My principal doubt is if you could admit this ritual for
> >investigating the recent murder of a Buserian lunar bureucrat (a fact
> >that will happen in my game).
>
>I don't think it will work on a Solar.

I would allow the -10 based on the enemy pantheon's realm to interact with a Solar ghost, or maybe no penalty given that the -10 penalty on NB p. 33 applies to initiates and communal worshippers, not devotees. If you want to disallow use of the Talk with Soul ritual without penalties or without small penalties, you could always rule that since the TKT worshipper has no knowledge of a relationship with Buserian, the ritual must involve crossing over and asking for help along the way to the Enemy Realm of Buserian. This is a whole adventure in itself and you don't need to say no. The opposite of "no" does not need to be "yes, it's easy."

Thanks,
Andy

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