From: Jane Williams (janewill@mail.nildram.co.uk)
Date: Wed 02 Jul 1997 - 22:54:12 EEST
Alex querying my queries of his ideas:
> > Also, the mundane time taken is determined by the ritual. Nothing
else.
>Not in all cases, surely; some HQs take years'n'years.
Yes, I meant that those are the ones where the physical, mundane aspect
has gone really deep. If you physically walk even a significant part of
the LBQ, it'll take years. If you do the SLBQ, and do a mega-depth-shift
to turn it into the real thing, it'll take 14 days. (And you'll have to
be very attuned to the HP to shift it). Or rather, you will experience
several years worth of danger, and will return (or not) to find that 14
days have passed at home. (And, I suspect, you'll only get 14 days worth
of healing, MP recovery etc. en route. While taking several years worth
of damage.)
>This where things start to go fuzzy again; which is the "deeper" ritual
>(and therefore the deeper quest), walking the whole way mundanely, or
>performing the Westfaring ritual to get you there?
Different, rather than deeper/shallower, I think. The risks vary. If you
want to do a Westfaring, and there's nothing in particular in your way,
load up a few mules and go on a trading trip. It'll take time, but you'll
get there, with no more than the normal dangers. And you don't need any
particular ritual skills. Any bare-footed peasant could do this :) (No, I
haven't ever seen Harmast's Saga, but I've read KoS).
Now, suppose there's a bunch of large armies in the way, all of whom want
>> (A really, really good [HQer] might [shift to Hell] accidentally...)
you dead? You're safer doing the ritual. OK, so you meet Orlanth's
enemies on the way (some of whom will look a lot like those armies), but
you've got the plot on your side. And, of course, it's faster.
>Talk about too much of a good thing. Yes, I think this is what
>increasingly happens when your "free will" is getting used up, or if
>you prefer, more of your "self" is on the HP than not. Bummer.
I was thinking less of will and more of "attunement" with the HP.
Look, I'm sure we all know what it's like when you're reading a good
book (or playing a really good RPG). You're there, you can see it, you
can feel it. The RW vanishes, and you close the last page to find that
it's dark and you're starving. Now, suppose you were an experienced HQer?
You're used to turning your imagination into reality. But can you stop?
You'd end up reading nothing but Mills&Boon, and that's too horrible a
fate to contemplate!
Can't you just see it: the great hero turns up at the local temple. The
overawed priest asks her to lead the weekly service. And the farmers find
themselves in the Darkness, about to start a battle...
> I suppose that depending on how they're used, they might be seen as
> "cheating", though -- say I use part of Westfaring simply to pop into
> Halikiv because I just happen to feel like it, rather than because I
> want to Harrow Hell.
Why not? You'd have to be a very good HQer to think it was worth it, but
there's no rule against it. As long as you manage to get off the Plot
before it drags you down, of course. The risk I see is in increasing your
attunement to the HP, with the problems described above.
In fact, take a look at my web page: there's a HQ I describe in the Vinga
section that does roughly this. (The main Vingan temple is situated in
Dragon Pass: to get to it while there were too many annoyed dragons in
the way, a route was developed via one of the Darkness battles. OK, so it
wasn't exactly popular...)
Jane Williams jane@williams.nildram.co.uk
http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~janewill/gloranth/index.shtml
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