Barntar's Folly - a heroquesting question

From: Rich Crofts <glarkhag_at_...>
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 07:43:20 -0000


Folks,

I am working on a simple Heroquest that has the potential to become complex because it relies on the outcome of what might be considered a separate Heroquest that intersects with the first. I hoping to get some feedback on how people believe this should work.

Every Tula has a field that they believe is Barntar's Folly, a field that is too rocky to plough (unless using Barntar's secret). To overcome this the Barntar's Folly heroquest is enacted and the hero must try to overcome Barntar's folly:

Simply put the the myth goes thus:

Barntar is busy pulling rocks from a field Grape Woman comes along and distracts him with wine. Barntar falls asleep.
Orlanth comes along and wakes Barntar but there is no time left to plough this field. Barntar must return when he has done all the other fields (7 years).

The outcome is the field is unproductive for seven years, waiting for the return of Barntar to plough it. In the Material world this means that if the myth is reproduced as per Barntar's experience then the rocky field in the tula remains unproductive for 7 years. Varying levels of success improve the quality of the field.

Telling the story from Orlanth's perspective we have something like:

Mahome comes and tells Orlanth that Barntar is being led astray by Grape Woman
Orlanth sets off to find Barntar.
On the way he encounters some challenges The challenges delay Orlanth
Orlanth finds Barntar asleep with Grape Woman and wakes him. Orlanth goes off and does other stuff...

My query is around the interaction of these two as Heroquests. They can be interpreted as stand alone Heroquests. My assumption would be that in the Barntar Heroquest Orlanth always arrives late. In the Orlanth heroquest Barntar is always found asleep. In either Heroquest it would be possible for Barntar to not sleep all day, still have enough time to complete his work (Barntar resists Grape Woman or Orlanth is delayed less) and the field becomes ploughable.
Is it possible that two heroes could coordinate entry into the respective Heroquests to ensure that they meet each other at the intersection of their heroquests? Thus doubling up the chances of having enough time for Barntar to make the field workable?

Any thoughts?

Rich

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