From: Bob.Luckin@tiuk.ti.com
Date: Fri 19 Aug 1994 - 14:12:37 EEST
Hi from Bob Luckin !
Issaries rebuilding Genert, hyenas etc. :-
Yesterday (X-RQ-ID: 5756) I asked why Issaries was so keen to rebuild Genert if the the danger that caused him to create Hyena to eat him still exists; or was it in CoP and I had forgotten it.
I checked when I got home, and of course the myth which purports to explain this IS in both the CoP and the RoC cult writeups. Garzeen (Issaries' middlman son) fancied Fenela, daughter of King Froalar, but she didn't fancy marrying a god, so she set him an impossible task to achieve, namely rebuilding Genert.
Such is the power of luurve that this master trader and (I therefore presume) expert at dealing with people apparently was unable to distinguish the real message in Fenela's request. Instead of giving up on a bad job and looking elsewhere to plight his troth, he undertook the quest...
And so all Garzeen merchants who come across a piece of Genert's body are obliged to depart for Genert's Desert within one week to fullfil the ancient vow. The only way out of this is to die, or to sell the fragment to a Desert Tracker of the Trader Princes (Goldentongue was the original Trader Prince).
I still suspect that this myth was constructed by the God Learners when they meddled with the cult. Someone came up with the bright idea "OK, we can switch Goddesses, now let's try and rebuild one." And someone else said "Nah, that'd be too much effort - I don't fancy that." And a third GL said "Wait, I've got an idea ! Here's how we could do it on the back burner..." And so they built the myth into the Issaries legends. :-)
Incidentally, if you take the cult writeups at face value, it is only followers of Garzeen who have to undertake this quest - not Harst or Goldentoungue merchants. And they only have to do this if they come across a live hyena, not a dead one. For this reason the other brothers of Garzeen will try to kill a hyena on sight, hence the cult's dislike of these creatures.
Also, I suspect not all parts of Genert are in hyenas; this is hinted at, but not explicit, in the text. So even if your PC Garzeen merchant manages to avoid hyenas, you might still find another way to dupe them into the quest.
Dave Cake (X-RQ-ID: 5770) asks Sandy for more gen on hyenas, and especially
on the Desert Tracker Quest. I second this ! He also says :
> I am particularly pleased to here that not every Hyena means a
> potential trip into the Wastes! It must be very difficult for a travelling
> merchant to avoid seeing them!
According to a Sage's note in Johnstown, there is only about a 3% chance of any merchant finding a piece of Genert each year, so it may not be quite as difficult as you imagine...
I couldn't find hyenas in the Gloranthan bestiary. In Nomad Gods, the counter appears to have a man's body and a hyena's head. The description says that probably as a result of having eaten Genert, the hyena tends to spend most of its time sitting around telling lewd jokes, which hypnotises his audience (units in the same stack are disrupted until hyena moves away).
So are Gloranthan hyenas really man-beasts that tell lewd jokes (somehow this strikes me as more Trickster than Genert), or are they more like the Earth-bound variety ? How does everyone else see them ?
Wild Healer
Tim asked :-
> On Communal Rune magic and temple spirits etc: OK, so what happens to the
>famous Broo Healer of the Rockwoods? I'm sure he knows Resurrection. I'm also
>sure he doesn't have a real big temple etc! So, how would he go about getting
>the spell cast if it requires a temple spirit?
Hmm. Well, how about using that immortal line : "My body is a Temple" ? (Sounds very appropriate a healer might be a fitness fanatic.) Then perhaps he has (or even is) his own wyter, which could be big enough on its own to allow him to regain the spell. :-)
Sandy suggests various switches
As for switching Scotland and Sartar, I say go for it. I'd love to see how the Lunars treat the SNP !
Cheers, Bob
--
Bob Luckin voly@tiuk.ti.com "Able was I ere I saw Corflu"
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