Exploring other worlds, one Monday at a time.

Das watches the axe maiden do her rituals and knows she will be a great distraction to the Uz. Das is impressed by how weird and CREEPY this place is, luckly Yinkin taught him how to be comfortable anywhere or at least act like it. He eats, sharpens his claws and otherwise takes advantage of the Rass hospitality.

Finally he makes his own preperation for the raid by first napping, then stretching, playing with Giant Smasher, napping and scratching Yinkin's mark on the bottom of a good bit of furniture as tribute to his god.

He wonders if the strange woman/man has a husband/wife or if it even needs one?

There are many rituals associated with preparation for battle.

The Arming of Orlanth is one of the most famous.

All of them allow a community to invest their support into an individual.

Some are harder (and therefore more powerful) than others.

Here are a few Babeester Gor rituals that are not fleshed out. Feel free to create your own, or to come up with details for any of these.

One Hundred Sad Tales and Another (everyone recites some wrong done to them, whispering it to the maiden, giving small gifts and something else happens too.)
Bad Blood Beer (With public declarations and with an enemy witness who must be released after, the axe maiden brews hot beer from the blood of a living enemy whose people will be the target of the maiden.)
Making The Cloak of Suffering (injured folk cut their scars off their own bodies, then sew them together into a cloak for the hero)
Suffering is A Companion (A vengeance daemon summoned from the blood, tears and bodies of children of the earth.)
Song of the Guilty
Every Wound a Promise
The Pain of Remembrance
Blood Tattoo Oath

In their broadest, most generic form, Babeester Gor rituals usually contain the following:

Something wrong or someone who has been injured or killed and vengeance is required.
Demonstration of the lengths to which the wronged will go to achieve vengeance.
The Axe Maiden accepting these demonstrations, but doing so in a shocking way, beyond what the supplicants expected.

Greetings,
While Speth begins her ritual, Will contacts the Kagrokka Moms re:allied attack on ZZ. Using customs and languages plus gifts of winter cabbage and whatever fresh kills Oshun or Speth can spare Will asks for their assistance. If K resists battle then Will asks if they will enter and hold the Hall after most ZZ give chase to the "fleeing humans". On the eve of "raid day" Will devotes prayers to Pavis and sacrifices food in order to gain great favor. With a handful of hero band volunteers and the rest giving their total support, Will augments his spear combat with defend the people, plus strength and tireless labor to keep going. There might be a few more augments, so I must review the sheet.
Jonathan

Greetings,
Will I Am: "Let us also remeber that the greater the darkness- the greater the Trolls strength. May I suggest the use of fire light once combatants have met within the arena. We can even make it appear that our fire has gone out and that is why we seem to withdraw from the fight. If this tactic succeeds in luring the great ZZ warriors from their temple then they will be more vulnerable upon the huntlands in the pre-dawn minutes. The cavalry should be prepared to egage from the rear so that our enemy cannot retreat. We are the lance, the spear and the the will of Pavis!"

Jonathan

Here I'm assuming some general fact-gathering done by Will or Oshun.

Praise Pavis, there isn't anything worse than him. He's huge, says he is descended from giant trolls, whatever those are. He wears his ancestor's skull as a helmet, and I hear his ancestor lives in it. He carries a mace called Many Barbs, and it drips burning poison that just kills weak folk outright. His armor has a name, and that's always trouble. Translated, it is something like "Gleam Eater" or some such, and it eats light right up. And I heard him kill Dosan, my cousin, with a howl that I still hear in my dreams.

And just 'cause he's big, and a troll, don't think he's dumb. He has a vicious cunning that has kept him alive for too damn long. And since the old Death Lord tasted the steel from Count Julan, he's been in charge of the whole temple warband. Mostly, he's been using it to pick off anyone who comes to close to their temple, but since the river froze, seems like he's been trying to probe the Garden for something. No, I don't know what.

Whether they remember Will or not, it does suggest that however helpful they might be, getting their cooperation may not be simple.

But what is?

Greetings,
As much as I would like to list the skills and augments for negotiating with the Brothers of the Champion's Villa I cannot without Will's character sheet. Once I get my hands and eyes on it Will can visit (with cabbages in hand) and say something like: "Fellow city defenders and stalwart survivors of this perilous winter I bring greetings plus offerings of food from the House of the Rass. Let our words warm your hearts, our soup warm your bodies and our strength add to yours." pause for response "I see that Zorak Zorani Troll raids have become more numerous. Why not combine our forces in order to lure them out of the Temple and onto the huntlands where our cavalry and the rising sun can finish them off?"
Jonathan

First, Rasa wants to put whatever forces the manor has on alert.

Then he has some meditation to do and a hour-long ritual, using the Master of Potonis skill, augmented by the veridian grimoire and the house's bonus .

And then assume Potonis.

And then...

If the ancient courtesies are still accorded me, I would peer into the great civic libraries.

I will seek out bloodstained strategies in the scrolls of the warrior god.

The close-packed stacks of the lore-misers shall reveal what is known of Zorak's cult, particularly that learned since I slept. And show me what knowledge I have that has passed from common ken.

And in the well-maintained ledgers of the traders, and the serene healing handbooks of the hospitaler goddess, I will search for ways to quell the dark bloom of hatred.

And at the last, the lore of our leader's home will tell me of these same trolls, and their theft of heroes hall, and how they came to fear the demon Potoneez.

And then I shall lay my plans.

I know I will need to claim the power which has been vouchsafed into the false mask. I know I will need to call upon my brothers in the role of the Heromaker. And I know we must defeat the Zoraks once, then balk their vengeance, over and again, before we hold our prize.

Then for a time I rest...

Come breakfast, Rasa will share what he has learned, and spend a hero point to get a skill in ZZ lore.

As far as such legends and rituals, I'm still trying to keep this from turning into a fair fight. How about destroying their morale and standing among the other trolls?

Back in my day, they used to tell the story of:

One day in the Hurtplace (the surface world) the most enduring Priest of the Most Encompassing Zorak Zoran (called henceforth ZZ), was leading the folk in hunting their prey, when they came on a place where the sky stopped hurting them.[/i]There is no sky in hell.)[/i]

ZZ's people sought, and there they knew a great mountain, with a jagged fortress at its peak. There in a tower of lived a great giant made of smoke, and it was he who hid the burning from ZZ and her tribe.

They rested there, and ate well, and when it was time to move on, ZZ's people refused, saying, let us dwell here in the protection of this giant, for it is pleasant here.

ZZ rebuked them, saying, You know we have places to eat.

But the people argued, and complained that their feet hurt and they were out of beetle sauce, and at last begged to go up to the giant and bid him accompany them on their journey.

And ZZ rained himself in finest leads and all went to greet the giant.

But as they approached, the giant grumbled.

Still, his magics grew stronger as they aproached, and they grew stronger and more bold, and when they arrived, ZZ greeted him as a person not to be eaten, and told his history and that of his tribe and they clashed their weapons and killed a few prisoners to show they were in a good mood.

And the giant burped at them.

Did he mock them? He didn't seem hungry but he didn't greet them or eat their gifts. They drummed and clashed and just before they finished the eat-or-be-eaten challenge the giant farted a great blast, and all the bearded trolls died, their beards burned off . Their meat was unfit for eating, and all their bood was sour.

Fiercest first the people stormed the fortress of the big man of smoke. Hands and hands of hands of them swarmed the fanged walls and flung themselves at the feet of the giant. When ZZ and her finest failed to return, the rest of her peopled swore berserk vengeance and attacked, crackling with the runes of hate!

What a battle! How they fought! Never have warriors, yes and even housetrolls and pickers -- and some say a final, dying scorpion at the very end -- lept upon the foe.

And that, my friends, is why Mt. Vulcanimous has no trolls.

Greetings,
Great account of why there are no trolls on Mt. Vulcanimous. I would love to read what you might write about on the subject of why there are more ZZ on Temple Hill in Pavis. Extra credit for that one, Brad. Did Mike ever answer your questions regarding ZZ lore and other research by Rasa?
Jonathan

Naw, that was just supposed to be a high priest of Zorak Zoran, and an example of someone being defeated even though they are the best at what they do.

And I figured the troll priest would be a lady.

Should have stuck with my original name, but ZZ-Top seemed familiar somehow...

So, some of what I read that surprised me:

ZZ love fire
ZZ use tricks and traps
ZZ are glad to be turned into zombies
ZZ like to flip out and kill everyone

Wait, that's ninjas.

"I have a bad feeling about this."

I sent an email to Mike with my idea for recruiting Flintnail -- no word yet.

Does he even read this site? And he never answers his email.

What a slacker!

Check my math on this one, please:

I want Rasa to lose his Wound before we raid the Trolls. (That way we can attack on a bright lunar day.)

If I understand, this can be cured only with "the appropriate magics."

So it could be interpreted as a curse, a missing limb, a haunting spirit, etc. (I'm assuming this is along the lines of a curse.)

Now, ordinarily I would say Will and Rasa can do the ritual from when Pavis healed the Faceless Statue, that should fix it.

But, what if we were instead to do a ritual/heroquest such as Croly Fights the Black Howler, where a curse was turned into a weapon against its sender? Could I get an Edge for Rasa vs Lunars? What would I need to do?

Rasa's odd moon handicap is not a simple wound. It is the bizarre result of a unique magical creature having been sucked deeply into lunar magics, chewed up and spit out as undigestable.

Healing on this level is a Big Deal, requiring research into questions like "Does Rasa have a Soul?" and "Who can repair such a damaged essence?"

Croly's Summons of Evil was a ritual to bring an enemy to you, so you can fight it on your ground at your moment of preparation. If you did something like this, the first thing that occurs to me is that at the end of it, you would have some defeated lunar magician whom you would then force to cast lunar healing magic on you. Does that sound like a good idea?

designing heroquesting is really a topic for all the game, but I know Jon has talked about the quest of the Faceless Statue as a potential framework for the ZZ temple raid. So I place this other example here.

http://glorantha.kondalski.org/g11index/1189.html

We're not exactly firing on all 6 cylinders on this project, are we now?

forget where I found that.
---------------

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=examples+of+the+heroic+cycle&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/design/features/gati3/page2.asp

http://www.rpgmud.com/WorldBuilding/Mythopoets/tmm-Sacred.html#Heading87 for the myth of nation creation. Think that might be useful?

So, your prep so far:

all relevant versions of the myth found
Will gains Extraordinary Support of Brothers of the Champion's Hall
Will has Extraordinary Support of the Power of the Healing Will band
Speth has consecrated her new temple, been recognized as priestess and has the extraordinary support of her >12 followers

Rasa has done some recon
Dasdandros has done some recon

Oshun?
Senech?

I don't believe you have secured the extraordinary support of the Pavis temple, if you intend to.

For tonight, I can assume that Oshun is off gathering support from the Zebra Tribe/his clan.

Reading some of the earlier posts here makes me realize that there's a more fundamental question Rasa must answer to be healed: Is Rasa messed up because it had something taken from it or because it had something added to it?

Heroes rise to the situation.

By focusing on the mechanics here, you seem to actually be asking "Is this something that is over Das' head?"
Heroquests always are.

It is safe to say that all the heroes should be aware that the quest they're preparing will be exceedingly dangerous and no one participating should be confident of returning.

The Rass are going "all in"--betting everything and getting everyone they can to bet everything they've got. A big win means the eradication of the power of the god of dark destruction's power in Pavis County, while a big loss means the end of the Rass at the least, and probably a resurgence of black terror in the darkness.

I'm not entirely sure what the question is here. I think it is safe to say that Das knows what Kirk knows relative to the politics, economic and military situation in Pavis. While he has only played a few sessions, those sessions have been spread over several months of game time.

would I do that?

I've tried to be clear.

It seems to me that while Das' abilities have brought you to the attention of the Rass, if Das wants to really distingush himself as a hero and cement his relationship with the Rass, he should go on the quest. Doing so is a step above the extraordinary support others are giving them.

But I'd like to play that out, because it should be a surprise to the Rass. why would they think of Das as more than just some eccentric freeloader mooching their food? Unless on the day of the quest, you just show up. Which is not advised, unless you're taking the role of "the unexpected ally."

Alternately, it is entirely reasonable to assume that you are being "called" into the quest. Das has Gorumush Three Legs as an enemy--perhaps Gormush aids the Zorak Zorani.

whoaa! Selector come, rewind.

and I guote "and no one participating should be confident of returning." 'eeeellllooo? (h left off on purpose to sound british)
It sure doesn't appear to me the other players feel that way. of course, ahem, Oshun has consistantly made known his aversion to this. "I remain uncertain. There is no failure in purpose, nor lack of honor and bravery in mundanely defeating the Zorak Zorani. indeed they will most likely come back and try to retake the temple, but we will just defeat them again. and again and again. That is what we do. we fight. This Heroquest...bold, all encompassing, grandiose. But also filled with peril and unyielding doom wrought with confusion. After all, I'm still waiting for someone to tell me if our last heroquest actually succeeded, or actually ended at all. "

We didn't land on the Heroplane...the Heroplane landed on us.

Assuming you aren't roof droppers, here's something important you must decide:

Who will take what roles in the quest?

Some are obvious, some are minor.

Will=Pavis
the Zorak Zorani=Thog, you hope.
Oshun = Joraz, one of the "New powers" that rallies around him after the second threshold. Or is he?

But I'm not sure who else is taking some of the named roles. Most importantly, who will be Flintnail?

Not all roles must be named, or even be animate people. Speth, for example, can take the role of "Pavis' Axe." though it does make for more limited potential gains for her.

So, what of Speth, Senech, Rasa?