From: Joerg Baumgartner (joe@sartar.toppoint.de)
Date: Fri 05 Jan 1996 - 03:29:18 EET
Loren asked:
> I have heard that the Hwarin Dalthippa cult appears to build very special
> lunar roads.
I don't know about the cult, but the Heroine herself certainly did so.
> There are two levels to the roads, supported by arches every 10 to
> 30m. The upper level is narrow, 5 to 10 meters above the ground, and
> used mostly for ceremonial purposes. I bet that nobles also use it
> to segregate themselves from social inferiors. The lower level is
> broad, 1 to 3 meters above the ground, and used for normal traffic.
> Arches support the roads.
> It would be prohibitively expensive to build such roads normally, so
> the HD cult must have some amazing magic going on to make them
> possible.
Or she has found a way to extend her mundane roads into the hero realm,
which, according to an old essay of Greg on Heroquesting (actually the
introduction to Waha's Quest from DW4, p.29, from autumn 1979). He writes
about three different types of heroquesting:
"There are currently three types of Heroquests being run in Chaosium at
this time. These three types are: 1) the "in-world" or practice runs;
2) The Magic Roads type; 3) The Other Side adventures.
[...]
<e>The Magical Roads</e> are less common and more dangerous. Dragon
Pass and its nearby regions are crossed by several magic roads similar
to the <i>leys</i> of Britain and China. To use these magic roads the
characters skip in and out of the mundane and physical planes, landing
for a step at the especially holy places marked on the maps and meeting
some fairly predictable foe types at each spot. The strength of the
foes may vary widely, though. This is used primarily for emergency
movement, though there are occasionally side-benefits which can or must
be gained to use the road."
In the Dragon's Past articles on the events of 1613, two examples for use
of Magical Roads are given: Redbird's flight from Alda-chur via Cliffhome
to the Holy Country, and the Colymar/duck expedition taking the short cut
to Stormwalk Mountain to contact Temertain in Seapolis.
Rurik Runespears sudden appearance in the Zorak Zoran episode of
Biturian's Travels seems to work similarly, and I recall that the Hill
of Gold heroquest description implied that the various questers started
from Dragon Pass or Prax and arrived physically close to Bikhy.
Mastakos "n" steps to the West in KoS is another of these roads, I
suppose, and Ronance's movement powers in Prax make use of the ley lines
between the various altars, too.
Dragonewt Roads seem to function similarly.
Now, if the upper level of Hwarin's roads (or Godunya's bridges, or the
Pharaoh's bridge) produce a controllable, event-less transit on such a
heroquest road, the magical benefit would well be worth the effort -
express travel between Jillaro and Mirin's Cross or Cafol and Hilltown
would take less than a day. This beats even moon boats or wyvern riders.
- --
Joerg Baumgartner
joe@toppoint.de
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