RE: Vingan Initiation Scenario idea

From: Bruce Ferrie <bruce_at_...>
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 15:20:35 +0100

Hi All,

I've just come back from my holidays, not that it's too relevant, I just want to gloat... :)

On Friday, October 13, 2000 12:55 PM, Thom Baguley [SMTP:t.s.baguley_at_...] wrote:
>
> Very interesting! I'm using Bruce Ferrie's initiation myth. The final stage
> involves the child alone to face a ritual enemy. The rescue quest involves
> a mythlet of my own devising - wherein Vinga rescues a child snatched by
> evil spirits (either chaos or darkness depending on the versions you have
> heard). The goal of the quest is to rescue a lost child, so technically it
> might work ... (but who'd be stupid enough to try a hero quest at such
> short notice ... my players!).
>

I think it's importnat to think about what the Rakstani are trying to achieve. Are they:

1. Trying to stop the girl from being initiated to Vinga so that they can bring her back home and "persuade" her to initiate to a more "suitable" cult? In this case, they might come and try kidnapping the girl before the initiation ritual begins. This could let you reverse things so that the "rescuing the lost child" heroquest happens before the initiation to Vinga, which could maybe take place before the PC heroquesters and the girl return to the Otherworld. So rather than starting at the temple, the initiation starts somewhere in the wilderness in the Otherworld.
2. Just interested in disrupting things and causing havoc? They don't want to see the girl dead, but have (probably) reconciled themselves to the fact that she's lost to them. In this case, they might be content to disrupt the ritual ground, scatter the regalia and cause some havoc. They probably won't stop the ritual, but they'll maybe get some plunder and cause a lot of inconvenience.
3. Dead set on revenge? They want their own back and they don't care if they kill her. If you're using my initiation myth (for those who don't know, it's on the Group files for the egroups list), they might either intervene to make sure that the initiate doesn't receive her gifts from the three priestesses (especially the shield from Ernalda and the warrior's spear from Ty Kora Tek), making her face the ritual enemy unarmed. Or they could take the place of the ritual enemy, intending to give the girl a *really* tough fight.

If it goes to tribal moot, in case 1, they could argue that they were just trying to recover a runaway child and argue that this is a private matter for her kin.
The other situations are more likely to start a feud or lead to a bunch of outlawings to teach everyone a lesson. In fact, case 3 could be regarded as kin-strife. Unless you can convince the lawspeakers that, by running away to another, the girl has severed her relationship to her kin. This would be pretty tough, IMO, unless the girl had run away to initiate to Humakt, say, or to a completely foreign or enemy cult.

Whatever they do, it's bound to anger the cult of Vinga, especially if the PC Vingan kicks up a stink about it.

Regards,

Bruce