Subject: RQ Discussions 37 First Distribution: July 11, 1992 You may get two copies of this, due to an interruption of the mailing script the first time I tried it. This one at least has the correct distribution date... ====================================================================== From: Troy Bankert [via MOB, via Tim Leask tsl@cs.mu.OZ.AU.] Subject: THE PEARL IN THE DUNG HEAP, PART 2 In an earlier RQ DIGEST there were some some enquiries made about Eurmal, the Lightbringer aspect of Trickster. An official write-up of the cult has never been published, although Bill Masek published his version in 1980 [see below], to my knowledge the first concrete information about Eurmal or the Trickster, even if it was unofficial. Greg Stafford completed some or all of a large section of the various aspects of the Trickster for OUTLAND CULTS, a book of cults for RQII which never made it to publication. The Trickster section probably served as the basis for the information provided in GODS OF GLORANTHA. The following is a list of sources and descriptions of the Trickster, usually in his embodiment as Eurmal. Some sources are possibly missing, but I have included all that I know of, except where Trickster is mentioned by name only. Sources have not been organized by Trickster aspect, but most refer to Eurmal or Ratslaff. RUNEQUEST II Cults of Prax; the Lightbringers Quest [p.57] Cults of Terror; Vivamort (Mythos and History) [p.48] Borderlands Referee's Book; The Agimori [p.18 - reprinted from WF #12, p.26] RuneQuest Companion; Jonstown Compendium (1474) [p.9], (1486) [p.33] RUNEQUEST III Intro to Glorantha Book; the Runes chart, Illusion and Disorder runes [p.13] Gods of Glorantha Prosopaedia; Bolongo [p.3]; Eurmal [p.6]; Ratslaff [p.15] Gods of Glorantha Cults Book; Trickster [p.70] Gods of Glorantha What the Priests Say; Staves From the Storm Priest (Eurmal); The Chieftain Speaks (Bolongo) Gloranthan Bestiary; Hoolar [p.23]; Jelmre [p,25] Elder Secrets Races Book; Mostal (Mythos and History) [p.22 - mostly reprinted from DIFFERENT WORLDS #24]; Mostal - Dwarves [p.51] OTHER SOURCES Nomad Gods; Independent Spirits - Raven [p.54] - Hyena [p.55]. Wild Hunt #55; Cult of Eurmal by Bill Masek. Different Worlds #4; Waha's Quest [p.30, 32] Wyrms Footnotes #5; The Celestial Court [p.27, 29] Wyrms Footnotes #6; The Greater Gods (Eurmal) [p.26] Wyrms Footnotes #7; Deities of Darkness (Sinjota and Kaldar) [p.26] Wyrms Footnotes #10; Gods of Light and Fire (Lowfires) [p.25] Wyrms Footnotes #13; The Orlanth Pantheon (Minlister) [p.4] Trickster is normally classified as one of the *Burtae*, or Young Gods, and so he postdates the Celestial Court. However, Ratslaff is often considered to be an aspect of Trickster, and so he has been included. Eurmal and Bolongo are the best-known aspects of the Trickster, but others are acknowledged. Raven, a spirit of Prax and the Wastes, is known to be the Darkness aspect of the Trickster; Hyena, another spirit of the Wastes, may be the Earth aspect, and Minlister, a spirit of the Orlanth pantheon, may be the Air aspect; others undoubtedly exist. Notations for these deities have been included as well. Other gods are sometimes called Trickster, usually by Yelm worshippers or members of the Kralori Empire. Thus, some people say that Trickster slew the Sun, even if they know that the god was actually Orlanth. Umath, Vadrus and Orlanth are the deities most often referred to in this fashion. Rumours circulate that the Red Goddess is simply an aspect of the Trickster born within Time and thus able to circumvent the Compromise, and some say that Nysalor was a Light aspect of the Trickster; a chaotic aspect is also rumoured. Some basic information can be inferred about Eurmal. He is the post-Time source of the Illusion Rune; he possesses Disorder as well, and possibly a third rune such as Luck. His parents are probably Tylenea, Celestial Court goddess of illusion, and Ratslaff, Celestial Court god of disorder. His worship would include minor temples in some few cities; he would provide most if not all Trickster spells that were in Gods of Glorantha Trickster section. Unusually, he would probably not have shrines dedicated to him, relying instead on the generic Trickster shrines. Whether or not his cult would have access to any common divine spells is unknown, although Spellteaching is probably available to teach the spell of Hotfoot (and possibly others). If anyone has or knows of any additional sources, particularly ones from Greg Stafford or CHAOSIUM, I would appreciate the information (if not the actual item itself). I will soon be on the net myself; until then, direct snail mail to: P.O. BOX 272914 Concord, CA 94527-2914. USA. ====================================================================== From: steve@tfs.COM (Steve Maurer) Subject: Cult of Misarde - God of Nightmares Please note: this is an unoffical Gloranta cult. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cult of Misarde In the Great Darkness, Tylenea, Goddess of Illusion, was wounded by Chaos. When this happened, her illusions and beautiful dreams were twisted into nightmares. The greatest of these nightmares was Misarde, which attained such power that it broke free of it's own unreality to stalk the world. Misarde is god of Nightmares, a living wound in the fabric of dreams. While he was created by Chaos, he has no great affiliation with the rune. He is much like Vivamort in this regard. His greatest power is his own unreality, which makes him very difficult to fight. His runes are Illusion, Death, and Darkness. Misarde's cultists make their living as assassins. The cult is small, secretive, and magically weak (though it is much more powerful than many small time assassin cults, such as Black Fang). Except for cult special Runespells, max Runespell power is 2 points; this includes Spell Teaching, so the cult cannot teach any Spirit Magic spell above 2 points. Cult members are allowed to purchase all but forbidden spells from whatever source they can get them; they often do, since cultists are typically wealthy. Temples are orgainzed into small successful assassin groups, headed by a Fear Master (rune priest). There is no Runelord status, but Fear Masters have "Runelord type" D.I. for the limited D.I. Misarde provides. Fearer (Laymember) Enrollent: Requires an oath of secrecy; CHAx5 * 1/10L donated Tithe: 10% of all income Spells: 1/2 Price: Mindspeech, Demoralize Normal: Coordination, Dark Wall, Mobility, Det. Blank(2) Forbidden: Fanatacize, Solace Special: Image Creation Skills: Hide in Shadows, Move Silently, Climbing, Jumping, Shortsword Leaving: Depends on Fear Master. Assassins wounded in combat are usually left alone; betrayers, are stalked and killed. Fear Maker (Initiate) Enrollent: CHAx3 + 1/100L donated; 1 try/year (1 POW on acceptance) Tithe: 20% of all income Spells: Free: Mindspeech, Demoralize 1/2 Price: Coordination, Dark Wall, Mobility, Det. Blank(2) Normal: Silence, Befuddle, Dispel Magic(2), Spirit Binding Forbidden: Fanatacize, Solace Special: Image Creation Skills: Disguise, Lock Picking, Brew Poison, Brew Acid Special: Intimidate, Mutilate Retribution:Nightmare, plus hunted by cult Intimidate - This skill is a fear-based "Oratory". The skill has no effect unless the victim believes the user has a credible threat (to a Demoralized victim, any threat is credible). Unlike Oratory, Intimidate can be used against enemies. However, also unlike Oratory, if the victim doubts the credibility of the threat, the victim will betray the skill user at the worst possible moment. Communication (05%) Mutilate - This skill allows the user to quickly prevent a corpse from being Resurrected, by removing organs and/or adding special poisons. Each attempt requires 12 seconds of total concentration (i.e. not in combat). Successful Healing Cult D.I. can still restore the corpse to ressurectability, unless the Mutilate roll is a critical. Fumbling gives the user the impression he has succeeded, even though he has not. Humakti attack known users of this skill on sight. Manipulation (00%) Fear Master (Rune Priest) Enrollent: Initial 18 POW/ (INT+CHA) as % + 1/100L; 1 try/year Tithe: 90% of all income Restricts: As Initiate Runespells: Extension(2), Fearshock, Shield(2), Summon Small Shade, Mind Link(2), Spell Teaching(2), Spirit Block(2) Special: Divine Fear, Cloak of Illusion, Freeze Scene Retribution:Nightmare, plus hunted by cult Divine Fear Cost -- 1 POW Point Range - Glorantha Duration - Permanent Nonstackable Reusable This is the only Divination that Misarde provides. It allows the priest to learn the greatest fear/phobia that the named target has. The target must be mortal, and living in Glorantha. This knowledge may be used for later Intimidate rolls, or to give advantage to a Nightmare. With a roll of 80%+, the target has no usable fears. Cloak of Illusion Cost -- 2 POW Points Range - Personal Duration - 15 Minutes Nonstackable Reusable This spell alters the caster's appearence to anything he desires; it covers all senses. To successfully duplicate a specific individual's features, a caster must use a Disguise skill for each sense; this always succeeds if the caster is sensing the target as the being spell is cast. It can never succeed if the caster never sensed the individual with them. Touch also fools Darksense. Anyone familiar with a mimiced individual gets a Sense roll against any Sense that did not automatically succeed. Cloak of Illusion may also be cast by a Fear Master's Allied Spirit. This also makes an illusion, but it has no substence. This be used to distract guards, and also as a target for a Misarde DI. Example: A priest wishes to imitate an arrogant nobleman he just saw walk into a bar. Even now, he hears him yell at the bartender. When he casts his Cloak of Illusion, he must use his Disguise to duplicate the nobleman's appearance; the GM gives him a +20% since he just saw the man. As he still hears the nobleman, the spell perfectly imitates the man's nasal drone, but the priest can't duplicate the man's smell, taste, or touch (darksense) since the priest never was close enough to sense any of these. Freeze Scene Cost -- 3 POW Points Range - 180 Meters Duration - 15 Minutes Nonstackable Reusable This spell freezes a 3mx3mx3m scene. Anyone looking at the scene senses it as it was when the spell was first cast. For instance, if cast on a closed door, it will seem closed even if later opened; images of anyone in the area when the spell was first cast will remain until the spell ends. Any who enter a frozen scene cannot be detected except by magic. Freeze Scene is a full illusion affecting all senses, and lack only substance (images are still walk-through). Nightmares The Misarde cult allied spirit is called a Nightmare, and always remains unbound. These spirits normally obey the same restrictions as all unbound allied spirits; they may only cast spells that directly affect their priest, and may not initiate any embodied spirit (living creature, familiar, or spirit bound into an object) in spirit combat. Nightmares also have the special ability of inducing terror in a victim's dreams, depriving them of sleep, occasionally even scaring them to death. The Nightmare dissolves itself into unreality, becoming a part of the victim's subconscious. It engages in a form of "spirit combat", pitting its POW vs the victim's WILL (for games without WILL, use INT + 1/3 POW as a subsititute). Once committed, it must fight until it is destroyed, it possesses the victim, or the victim awakes (in which case the attack ceases). When the Victim awakes, his or her WILL is restored to full. If the Nightmare succeeds in "possession", the victim suffers as if attacked by Fearshock. There is no range limitation for this ability, and normal magical defenses cannot stop, or even detect, the attack. A victim may attempt to "withdraw" from this combat, by rolling INT/2 on percentile each round. Nightmares which know their victim's worst fears get a +4 on their effective POW. (An almost unknown, but very effective remedy is a Xiola Umbar Solace spell, which if cast on a target suffering a Nightmare attack, prevents the Fearshock on Nightmare possession -- the combat will continue, in case the victim overcomes and destroys the Nightmare). Misarde DI Misarde is a god who lives on the boundary between reality and unreality; his Divine Intervention reflects this. When asking for aid, a cultist may only ask that a currently running full Illusion spell (covering all senses except substance) be made real. For this, however, the cultist himself becomes unreal -- an illusion which disappears after 15 minutes time. An illusion made real gains the same INT, and adds up to the same total characteristic points as the original cultist; non-magical weapons and clothing can also be generated, and appearence can be rearranged at a whim. Items acquired by an illusion do not disappear along with the illusion. The "cultist turned illusion" can only avoid disappearing by meeting the "illusion made real", and killing it -- in which case he was the original all along, and the "illusion made real" was always an illusion. The "cultist turned illusion" always desperately attempts to find and kill the "illusion made real", since the former cultist wants to live. Both know everything the other knew at the time of the D.I., and no Nightmare will interfere in such a battle. Fear Masters usually use the DI by having their Nightmare cast a Cloak of Illusion of themselves elsewhere. If they are caught, they ask that they become the Illusion, and the Illusion become them. They create the illusion far enough away so that it is difficult or impossible for their former selves to find and kill them. Fear Masters who wish to protect an entire group, may do the same with a prepared Freeze Scene spell (the Fear Master casts the spell showing the entire group as it was before an attack was made). The latter is dangerous, because it causes multiple illusionary duplicates, and the resulting fights can be very disruptive to an operation. Spirit of Retribution Any cultist who betrays Misarde, gets his own Nightmare which has a POW of 2d6+12. It remains until the cultist dies of fear (and remains dead), or he fights it off. The cult also hunts ex-cultists. ====================================================================== From: paul@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu (Paul Reilly) Subject: Re: RQ discussion Paul Reilly here, to contribute a short note about shamanism and fetches. On Earth, many shamans go on spirit journeys while simultaneously describing them or performing a psychodrama for their audience/clients/tribespeople. Thus, one might speculate that on Glorantha (where magic actually works and myths become reality) that shamans' fetches will animate the body while the shaman is on a spirit journey and describe or act out the journey as the shaman goes forth in search of healing or enlightenment or whatever on behalf of his or her tribe. I am basing this account more on the way of Siberian shamans (the ones who are actually called shamans in their own language) more than anything else. Shamanistic rituals vary a lot from culture to culture and even (especially among North Americans) from individual to individual. Another thing missing from the RQIII description of shamanism is that shamans will often take along fellow-travelers on the spirit journey. The Gloranthan auxiliary material such as Trollpak often describes various rituals of this general nature, but rules for it seem to be lacking. Well, all for now. Hopefuly I will send in more material before too long... - paul ====================================================================== From: carlf@panix.com (Carl Fink) Subject: Try again on submission In the last RQ discussion list, David Cake says: >>The Rune in Gods of Glorantha above the Godunya cult >>description (the weird one) is the Godunya rune, according to >>Sandy Peterson. I presume that it is symbolic of the office of >>Emperor or the Kralorelan Empire in general use, but I am not >>sure as to its more spiritual function. Godunya is presumably >>prime source of this Rune. Presumably a form Rune, unless it is >>grouped with Mastery and Magic. This rune is Dragon - I don't know what Sandy was thinking of when he said that. Notice that Immanent Mastery also has it. In any case, it's clearly called Dragon in several places. (Its similarity to Beast and Dragonewt is by no means coincidental, of course.) David comments at length about the odd rune above the Gorgorma cult in GODS OF GLORANTHA - but Sandy once told me that the strange horizontal line through the filled circle was a printer's error, and it is in fact supposed to be Darkness. Examination of the Earth goddesses in general will show you an interesting duality - each benevolent goddess has a dark counterpart with the opposite runes. The hollow square is benevolent Earth, the filled square Dark Earth - and you should compare them with the empty circle of light and the filled circle of Darkness. To elucidate (apologies to those not using 80-column screens): VORIA BABEESTER GOR Fertility, Light Earth Death, Dark Earth ERNALDA MARAN GOR Fertility, Light Earth, Harmony Death, Dark Earth, Disorder ASRELIA TY KORA KEK Fertility, Light Earth, Luck Death, Dark Earth, Fate DENDARA GORGORMA Light Earth, Light Dark Earth, Darkness So, it seems unlikely that Gorgorma would have a unique rune - it would ruin the consistency of the Earth Goddesses. ============================================================================ From: steve@tfs.COM (Steve Maurer) Subject: Cult of The Sky River Titan Cult of The Sky River Titan The heritage of the Sky River Titan is largely unknown. He is thought to be a child of Rain, god of Sweet Water, and Subere goddess of dark magic. Whatever his lineage, he was the greatest of the water gods ever seen above the seas. Like many of his brothers, in his youth Sky River had wanderlust. He left his home in the Seas, and went in search of new places and things. Sky River met Argan Argar, and learned from his uncle of the war between the gods, and the method of Argan Argar's victory over fire. He met Hykim, god of all animals, and learned to love them well. Sky River then met a true Dragon, He Who Sees What Cannot Be Seen, and for him sheltered dragonnewts wounded by other gods into undraconic form, the ancestors of the dinasaurs and newtlings. And the Sky River fought in the I Fought We Won battle against all Chaos, destroying many Chaos gods. Finally, the Sky River looked to the stars, and said to them: "Why do you not aid in the war against Chaos?". But the hosts of heaven were silent. So Sky River said: "If you will not willingly aid those who fight for all, then I shall plunder you to give them the aid they need". He climbed the tallest mountain, and leaped into heaven, doing battle with all the star gods. Everywhere he went, he took the treasures of Heaven and cast them down, so that they could be used in the war against Chaos. His treasures fell at random though, so no one who asked him for aid, could specify exactly what they would get. Finally, when the spike exploded, and Magasta called all Water Gods to return to the sea to hurl themselves into the void that was created, the Sky River followed the call of his grandfather. His river was formed from the path he took, and flows even today. In Time Sky River Titan is the river cult of Dragon Pass, which starts in heaven, falls through Sky Fall Lake, and makes its way to the sea. His is the greatest river cult on the face of Genertela. The Sky River Titan's runes are Water, Magic, and Luck. The cult of the Sky River Titan is small. All powerful within its limited domain, it has become the cult who shelters and defends all water creatures who are unable to do so themselves. The cult protects ducks, newtlings, dinasaurs, trolls, trollkin, and humans who are unjustly persecuted by the surface folk. The Sky River grants gifts to those dedicated to fight Chaos. Within the cult, no prejudice or fighting between races (even trolls and trollkin) is tolerated. The mortal enemy of this cult is Delecti, an undead horror which fouled the path the Sky River Titan left. The cult actively fights the power of Delecti, though has not the means to challenge it directly. While Delecti's curse remains on the river, no special spells or cult skills work in the swamp the thing created. The sacred place of the Sky River Titan is the lake from which he leaped into heaven: Sky Fall Lake. It is here that huge treasures, victims, monsters, magic, iceburgs and pieces of stone up to the size of small islands still fall into the lake. It is a most holy and exceedingly deadly place to visit. The lake is also believed to be bottomless, and is thought to go directly into hell. Duck and troll cultists whose greed outmatch their fear, boat and swim these waters hoping to net treasures from the Titan. Non cultists are not allowed onto the lake, though they may eat of the plentiful fish of the lake from the edge. Laymember Enrollent: Non-chaotic; able to swim; above animal INT Tithe: 1sp or Good Fish a week Benefits: Fishing rights; fish for those to feeble to feed themselves. Spells: 1/2 Price: Detect Magic, Mobility, Extinguish Full: Befuddle, Speeddart, Dispell Magic, Counter Magic Restricted: Firearrow, Fireblade Skills: Swimming, Fishing, Camouflauge, Swim Quietly, Net, Trident, Boating Leaving: Cultists are free to leave Swimming - Ability to swim and not drown. Also how to best combat when in water A chartacter's weapon attacks cannot exceed his or her skill in Swimming, or half weapon skill (whichever higher). Swimming is -10% for each ENC over "light" (STR+CON/4). Fishing - Ability to fish. Skill allows identification of areas where fish are likely to congregate, which lures are best for the conditions, and skill with various fishing implements. Making the roll nearly guarantees success if full day is spent. Boating - Ability to handle small boats, rafts, and (river) barges. Roll whenever any challenging boating situation comes up. Initiate Enrollent: Lay member one year, or defending the river; 1 POW acceptance. Tithe: 20% of income; must defend the river with life Spells: Free: Mobility 1/2 Price: Spirit Binding (other as laymember) Full: Disruption, Spirit Binding, Bladesharp Special: Hold Breath Skills: Taste Sense, Parry Net, Laymember skills are at 1/2 price Reprisal: Rejection of the Waters Hold Breath Focused/Passive/Variable This spell extends the time targets may hold their breath. Each point of this variable spell increases the normal breath holding time by one minute. It is only effective if the target is above water when the spell is cast. Taste Sense - This is the underwater "smell" skill. Successful use allows the user to know the presence of things that are upstream of him. Parry Net - This special net acts like small "shield", most useful for parrying small weapons; it has 6 Armor Points, and 12 hit points. The net can only be damaged by bladed weapons, but all damage above 6 points is passed through to the wielder. A parry of a missed attack, a special of a normal attack, or a critical parry of any but a critical, gives the parrier the option to entangle the attacker's weapon. Neither weapon nor Parry Net can be used until the round after the weapon is disentangled; the attacker must roll STR vs STR to free his weapon, the parrier may let go at any time. Rune Priest Enrollent: Initial 18 POW/(INT+CHA) as % + 1/100 Sp Tithe: 90% of all income Runespells: All standard; summon Undine (any size) Special: Fish Eye, Breathe, Control Water, True Net, Ice Prison, Water Leap Reprisal: Rejection of the Waters Breathe Cost -- 1 POW Point Range - 180 meters Duration - 15 minutes Nonstackable Reusable This spell causes the target to be able to breathe where ever he or she is (air or water). This spell may be made permanent with a reletively minor heroquest (only 20% death rate). Fish Eye Cost -- 1 POW Point Range - 180 meters Duration - 15 minutes Nonstackable Reusable This spell allows a non-water creature to see underwater as well as a fish, or the reverse for a water being on land. It does not give the user to see better than a creatures who are in their natural environment. Control Water Cost -- 1 POW Point Range - 180 meters Duration - 15 minutes Stackable Reusable This spell changes or increases the speed of water by 20 kph (12 mph) per point, equivalent to 10 STR of water. The water can be made to flow uphill, and onto land if that is desired. It will also do 1d3 crushing damage per point to anyone pinned against the water. True Net Cost -- 2 POW Points Range - Touch Duration - Permenent Nonstackable Nonreusable This spell consecrates a net to the Titan, and makes it totally unbreakable when in the water (it's still vulnerable on land). If such a net catches a treasure too big, it must be cut free of the boat, or the boat will sink. Ice Prison Cost -- 2 POW Points Range - 180 meters Duration - 15 minutes Stackable Reusable Any target in water is instantly frozen in ice with Hit Points equivalent to the POW of the caster, any extra points stacked add POW hitpoints to the prison, or add one target. Those trapped in ice can't move, breathe, speak, cast spirit magic spells, or otherwise free themselves unless they roll STR vs Hit pts of the ice. Rerolls after are allowed only when the hitpoints of the ice have been otherwise reduced. Striking an ice bound victim damages the ice only up to its hits; any extra are applied to the victim (vs armor). This spell has no effect against non-immersed targets. Command Monster Cost -- 3 POW Points Range - 180 meters Duration - Instant Nonstackable Reusable This spell only works on monsters which live in water of the Sky River Titan. The monster must obey a single command from the caster, which must be something the monster can do; "die" is not an appropriate command. Unintelligent monsters gain an understanding of the emotional intent of the caster, though can't follow complex instructions. This spell cannot be resisted, even by chaos monsters from Snake Pipe Hollow. Water Leap Cost -- 3 POW Points Range - 180 meters Duration - Instant Nonstackable Reusable When cast, this spell lets the recipient make a single leap from Sky River to any place he has water to propel him; the range is 100 times the width of the Sky River from which the spell is cast. The caster is followed and surrounded by a fountain of water visible in a wide area, also providing substance for numerous Undines. The river must refill to be able to recast this spell (usually one full turn). Water Sprites Allied spirits of Sky River Titan are called Water Sprites. They come in any of a hundred forms. They can be awakened from any unintelligence animal species the Titan pledged to protect (all river dwellers), they can be bound into a trident or net, or they can be free spirits of the waters (unbound). A special heroquest can be done to bind an unbound water sprite into a small undine. Sky River Titan DI Sky River Titan gives easy "runelord type" D.I. to all of his priests. This power extends past the rivers, and need not be water based, since he Titan took many great treasures of heaven, and can use them to his purposes. However, unlike the D.I. of other cults, no specific favor can be asked for. Rather, the benifit, like all the Titan gifts, come at random. The only exception to the above, is that with a successful D.I. a cultist who pledges to fight a specific chaos menace, may ask for a gift from the river without having to brave Sky Fall Lake. This "chaos menace" need not be a combat foe; pledging to clean the disease out of a lake would also qualify. The gift arrives in the river, and is proportioned accordingly to the danger the cultist has pledged to undertake. The gift is guaranteed to be useful, but not neccessarily against the specific chaos he has pledged against. The cultist must then leave to fight this menace, or he is a reprobate and subject to the Titan's spirit of reprisal. Spirit of Reprisal Those who betray the Sky River Titan are rejected by all the waters which owe allegience to him. The reprobate floats to the surface, and cannot go into the river, it forms a skin to prevent him. For water breathers, this is a death sentence. But even for air breathers, there is another aspect of the curse. Even potable water in glasses and cups will not flow into the mouth of he who betrayed the Titan, it flows around instead. Only water which has been polluted with disease, urine, dung, or offal acts normally, and can be drunk by the violator. Fishing the Lake To fish Sky Fall lake the following equipment must be obtained: one boat (mininum cost 5,000L, 25% survivability; each +100L adds +1% survivability - to 75%), true net, crew of 4 to 8. Guests are allowed, but must be outnumbered by Sky River Titan cultists, and may never receive more than half the share of the lowest ranked Titan initiate. Fishing for magic on Sky Fall lake is an adventure in itself. This chart is not meant to substitute for a game session. However, for an idea on events which happen on the lake, use the following rules. Each day there is both a chance for disaster, and a chance to gain treasure. As the lake is incredibly choppy, a Boating roll must be made each day to avoid sinking. However, other events depend more upon luck. Each day roll two 1d10. On a "0" for the first die, roll on the disasters table; on a "0" for the second die, roll on the treasures table. A disaster usually negates treasure aquisition for that day. ROLL DISASTER 01 Slight scare; no problem. 02-05 Large wave: swamp boat; roll Boating or boat lost 06-10 Small stone: boat nicked (d100L damage) 11-15 Medium stone: boat damaged (2d100L; roll survivability or boat sinks) 16-20 Large stone: boat sunk (all must make swim roll or die) 21-25 Cultist overboard (make swim, be rescued by others, or die) 26-30 Cultist hit by debris; 1d10 damage 31-35 Cultist smashed by debris; 3d10 damage 36-40 Net fouled on boat (roll Boating-30 or loose net) 41-45 Net overburdened; roll survive; if made get treasure, missed loose net 46-50 Net greatly overburdened; loose net 51-55 Net greatly overburdened; loose net, swamp boat (as 02-05) 56-60 Net overburdened couldn't cut in time; loose net; boat sunk (as 16-20) 61-65 Monster in net (make Boating and Survivability or loose net) 66-70 Cultist caught under net (1d20 minutes) 71-75 Small whirlpool; roll survivability or boat lost 76-80 Huge whirlpool; Special boating or boat lost; special swim to escape 81-85 Monster attacks crew (4d6/60% bite 40 HP/4 Armor - can be bigger) 86-90 Large monster attacks boat (roll 1/2 survivablity + boating) 91-95 Island near miss; boat lost; cultists scattered; roll POWx5 or dead 96-00 Island hit; everything lost; POWx2 to avoid death (per crew) ROLL TREASURE 01 Heroquest item (30 pt armor, 6d10 trident, 50 pt crystal, etc) 02-05 Maxed Crystal (roll d15+5; crystal is max power) 06-10 Storage Crystal 11-15 Powered Crystal 16-20 Flawed Crystal 21-25 Iron (2d20 Enc) 26-30 Marble Tablet (skill scroll) 31-35 Wand (special offensive magic bonus) 36-40 Magic Weapon (min twice damage; often special offensive power) 41-45 Shield (unbreakable; often special defensive power) 46-50 Armor (runic metal enchanted to iron thoughness; usually incomplete) 51-55 Sky Titan Cult holy item (usually conferrs "permananent" runespell) 56-60 Other cult holy item (usually sky cult related; value: 5d1000) 61-65 Spirit bound in Item (will work for food - {POW}) 66-70 Spirit Magic Matrix (random) 71-75 Bizarre Magic Item (magical curiosity) 76-80 Hunks of Gold (d20 * d100 L) 81-85 Statuary/Artwork ((d20-5) * d100 L; less than 0 is 0) 86-90 Curiosity, non-magical (combination lock, wierd eating implements) 91-95 True Net (usable True Net found) 96-00 Junk ====================================================================== From: dogwood!warren@gatech.edu (Warren E. Taylor) Subject: A RuneQuestion I know I've probably asked this before, but I'm looking for a copy of the pre-Avalon Hill RuneQuest. A photocopy would do, I guess. I used to play RQ. I had RQII at one time and eventually it got ruined. I quit playing it. A while later I bought the Avalon Hill version but I've not been too happy with it. I seem to remember better quality in the older version. I want to teach this game and world to my group of 10, and I'd like to use some of the older stuff if possible. Is there any hope of this? Warren. ====================================================================== The RuneQuest(tm) mailing list is a courtesy of Andrew Bell. All opinions and material above are the responsibility of the originator, and copyrights are held by them. Unless specified in the specific article, all RQ Digest material is freely redistributable on a not-for-profit basis as long as author credit is included. RuneQuest is a trademark of Chaosium, Inc. Send submissions, mailing list changes, requests for old article lists, etc. to: bell@cs.unc.edu ...!mcnc!unc!bell Request old articles by volume number and issue number.