Re: Enemies in a heroquest

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_...>
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 10:22:42 -0700

> Is there any way to deliberately enter another's heroquest and take
> the role of one of their opponents if you know the right myth? So if
> Halgar is doing the 'Seven Leaps to Freedom' and his nemesis Oddi
> finds out and knows the 'Battle of Blood Falls' on that myth is same
> Red Waterfall as when he does 'Enesti wooes the river', can he
> perform 'Enesti' with the objective of meeting Halgar, ambushing him,
> and preventing him succeeding at 'Seven Leaps'?

Yes - this is what happened to the Pharaoh, after all - ambushed by ?Jar-Eel? while doing his "Body Swap" HQ.

> If so how does Oddi get to enact the quest so that he appears in it
> Halgar's quest at the right moment? Do the questers draw themselves
> together via their personal emnity, and if so does this make it
> difficult to disrupt quests in this way without that relationship?

Most people will (when they are at a HQ-ing level) have personal enemies that will show up at the most inopportune times - Call it fate, or the Cruelty of the universe, or whatever. Yopu probably don't even need to know that your enemy is doing *his* quest - you happen to be doing yours at thesame time, and at some point they'll overlap - An Orlanth Adventurous doing the "Rescuing Ernalda from the Evil Emperor" quest and a Yelmite doing a "Yelm Looks after his realm and squashes upstarts" quest who happen to be personal enemies will probably encounter each other as Orlanth and Yelm, respectively (throw in an Ernaldan Quester for a love triangle...). Also, since all this happens in the Hero Planes, you can meet each other at different times of life (cue Twilight Zone music).

RR