> >(1) There is no Bargain with Spirits ability in any HW shaman's >keyword
> >that we've seen so far.
>
> Because none is needed. Simply use ordinary Bargain, Intimidate
> etc. There's no HW skill called Bargain with trolls but we don't
> go around assuming that the Fight Troll skill is used instead on
> the spurious grounds that it's badly named.
You miss my point. There is no Bargain skill whatsoever in any HW shaman's keyword that we've seen so far. Warriors have combat skills presumably because they fight as part of their occupation. Hunters have hunting skills, based on the same rationale. Shamans bargain as part of their occupation (and I agree this makes much more sense than lumping everything under Spirit Combat), but no shaman-related keyword lists a Bargain ability (or Negotiate, or Deal, etc.).
If you were playing a Humakti warrior and had to take Close Combat (Sword Fighting) as a sideline skill because Sword Fighting didn't appear in the occupational or magical keywords, you might think that was odd.
Adding appropriate communication abilities to the keywords involved is not a problem, once it's clear that that's what should be done. It's just not obvious that something is missing there.
I do appreciate the clarification, because I didn't understand Roderick's post correctly.
> A fetish is a spirit trap. If a spirit inhabits a fetish
> than it can't be used elsewhere. A scenario in Borderlands
> hinged on this fact (Duke Raus sent the PCs to get a sword
> containing an ancestor so that he could find out the names
> of even more ancestors).
I had something more in mind like the Basmoli lion skins in Drastic: Prax: "Each Basmoli clan carries a sacred lion skin as a fetish, which is the focus for the shrine to Basmol.... Lions have been extinct in Prax and the Wastes since before Time began, and a clan there which loses its lion skin is without a shrine or fetish until they recover it or manage to locate another."
Obviously if one clan has a Basmol lion skin fetish, other clans can still worship and contact Basmol (in whatever ways his death allows). Possession of the fetish doesn't provide exclusive access, and I don't read this passage to imply that Basmol is in some way trapped within each lion skin.
I don't dispute the existence of spirit-trap fetishes, but I think there is also some precedent for ritual items that allow shamans to simply contact, rather than to exclusively possess, spirits, and I think this might be a possibility for ancestor worshippers.
James
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