Okay, this distinction--between "go from here to there" quests, and simple deeds--is what I was missing. It makes a lot of sense.
I guess I'd modify my original suggestion in this way, then: I assume that with any ritual (such as the Arming of Orlanth and the Summons of Evil), there are ways to make the ritual more powerful, but which would make the risks correspondingly greater. Pull more cosmic strings, call in more debts, use more imaginative rituals, and you might get a better effect--but it might all go wrong and give you a much worse outcome. In game terms, it's vaguely analogous to making a big AP bid.
But the line between "rote, by the numbers ritual" and "big risky powerful ritual" is blurry and gradual, not like the sharp lines between "practice quest" and "hero-plane quest" and "godworld quest".
Oh, and one other thought, vaguely apropos--I presume that these rituals could themselves occur in a HeroQuest, as one of the stations? For example, suppose the myth includes something like "Then Orlanth called his thanes together, and they armed him for battle, and he went forth and drove Gash from the field". In a case like that, I'd assume station N might be "Orlanth is armed by his thanes"--you re-enact the mythic "Arming of Orlanth" event--*and then* you go on to station N+1, "Orlanth defeats Gash". The motion occurs from one station to the next, and the success of the "arming" station influences your chances in the "fighting" station.
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