From: Bruce Hollebone (hollebon@cyberus.ca)
Date: Wed 24 Jun 1998 - 02:29:55 EEST
Hi There,
About a week ago I asked about Orlanthi initiation, and suggested a
Kill-the-emperor re-enactment. A few very good suggestions were
offered on the digest (thanks all) and I figured I'd better report
back afterwards.
On the suggestion of the digest, I had a second look though my
materials. I found two mentions of coming of age initiations:
Orlanth's Initiation in King of Sartar and a trial-by-combat in Apple
Lane. I decided to go with the myth.
After we generated characters (3), I gathered the characters in the
longhouse of the chief and had the Lawspeaker retell the myth of
Orlanth, his brothers and their evil uncles (KoS, pp64-5), leaving
out the trial of "the other brother" in the sexpit (Ragnagar not
being an example you want kids to follow). I offered them a choice:
the trials of Vadrus, Urox, Humakt or Orlanth. The big V, the bull
and Orlanth were chosen. Some cheap stage theatrics ensued while the
people in black bodystockings rearranged the scenery.
We did the test of Orlanth first. The candidate found himself in an
unknown land with a dwarf, and elf and a troll. The other players
and I each took an individual---I gave the other players a three-word
description of their attitudes. Dwarf: precice, pedantic, selfish.
Troll: hungry, cruel, shameless. I played the elf. This worked well.
We walked around Mt. Quivin on the heroplane trying to find our way
home. The dwarf had to be convinced to climb a cliff to see the way,
the troll convinced not to eat the others and bully her way past a
Zorak Zorani spirit, the elf to talk a Gardener into giving passage
(to the dwarf and the troll too). The candidate arrived back home to
the longhouse safely.
The Test of Valind: The candidate found himself being carried by a
giant (Kalk) then chucked into a large, deep well. He found the well
full of very timid blue tadpole men who seemed to be able to stir the
water by moving around. To complicate matters a cross between a pike
and a man swam up from the deeps and attempt to drown him. A couple
of spear criticals drove it away. After some prompting, the character
began to drive the tadpole men before him, swimming around the
outside of the well, creating a vortex. This climbed the sides enough
that the young man could grab ahold of the lip and pull himself out.
The test of Urox: The character found herself in a pasture defending
a herd of sheep, cattle and other, unidentified beasts. She heard a
howl. She stamped around the herd snorting. A sheep, then a cow,
then one of the "other" beasts disapeared (several missed scan
rolls). She felt a strong twinge in her right shoulder, then another.
Two fell beasts (Telmori) jumped the fences and chased the herd.
The candidate stamped her front hoves then attacked with her spear.
A straight dice-rolling battle occured. The character fumbled twice
(even with her spear skill at 90%, boosted by passion) and fell to
unconciousness. Flying by the seat of my pants, the bull felt a surge
of power through her hooves and the cows fell to the ground in a
stupor. The wolves were speared to death, then stomped on. The bull
then lead the remainder of the herd to greener pastures. Many cows
did not recover and died in that field. The female character/bull
dicotomy worked really well actually.
The results? The Orlanth testee got a bonus to his Bargain skill (and
will probably be initiated into Issaries). The Valind testee got a
minor bonus to swim. The Urox candidate got a base chance in detect
chaos (5%), but her father's herds will fail next year.
Next up: Boldhoome falls! Bats, Emperors and the household of Death!
Btw, completely by accident, the female character (the Urox testee)
is named Kallyr. The campaign started at 1600. What did Starbrow do
at Boldhome?
Bruce.
------------------------------
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #664
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