Re: TotRM teleportation

From: bethexton <bethexton_at_...>
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 15:13:29 -0000

Which empire are you refering to? This power is most commonly held by Mastakos, Orlanth's charioteer, a member of the Storm Tribe. Therefore it sure doesn't tie together the lunar empire, although potentially it could have been used by things like EWF or Arkat's dark empire, and no doubt the Argath would value a companion with such an ability.

In RQ allied cults would share some of their magic, so certain Orlanthi (I forget if it was lords or priests) were able to sacrifice for Mastakos Guided Teleport ability. Since it is so useful, a lot of characters obtained it.

Now the only way to get this is through learning Mastakos secret. Note that Mastakos is generally worshipped through Orlanth Adventurous (although he is not a Thunder Brother per se, I'd view him as being similar to a shared sub-cult that isn't shared by anyone else. i.e. Everyone recognizes that he is his own god, who gives his magic directly, but he is so associated with Orlanth that the worship can happen jointly. But I'm a Mastakos fan, others may prefer to view him as no more independant than say Finnovan).

Given that Mastakos will be far from the most popular sub-cult of OA, and that only those who actually learn his secret get this ability, I would think that in all of Sartar there wouldn't be more than a handful of people with this talent.

Finally, note that the secret now states that the devotee creates his own holy place which he always returns to, so it is not always in a temple (and besides, most Orlanth temples are basically hill tops with minimal structure, not buildings with many rooms).

Having said all that....I believe that the basic rules do list guided teleport under the "difficult magic" section, with a +40 difficulty (note that Mastokos devotees now don't actually use guided teleport, they actually travel through the other side, so "only" have to defeat the barrier for that). Presumably somebody else has guided teleport powers. I can imagine some sorcerors developing this ability, or also some mystics (I deny that physical location has any meaning, so instead of being here I can be back in meditation room). I'm not aware of any lunar or solar cults which have this power, but if there is some obscure cult which does, you know the lunar empire would sponsor it for its usefulness. Still, the +40 difficulty means you are looking at a target of 14W2 or higher, so again it would have to be very rare.

Regards;

Bryan

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