* **

Subj: Seven Sky _Games_

Date:	97-03-18 21:11:22 EST
From:	ilium@juno.com (Stephen P Martin)
To:	Ethesis@aol.com


THE SEVEN SKY GAMES

Originally presented in The Wild Hunt 40


This quest takes place on the first level of the sky and it recreates the
journey and trials that Ruach Shaddaih went through as he attempted to
rescue the Lady of the Shadows from a pit of entropy. It is open to any
who have lost a loved one to chaos. The only preparations necessary will
be the game materials mentioned for the first stage and a bit of travel.


First the quester(s) will go to any small town on a holy day in Storm
Season. At this place they begin to play ball with a group of kids using
a ball made of malachite and blessed by a priestess of any darkness cult.
This is a recreation of Ruach's transcendance via concentration (like
when you quit waiting for the water to boil and suddenly the tea kettle
begins to whistle). The quest begins when the questors notice that there
are spirits (sprites?) instead of children, and that they are no longer
bound to the ground. This is the first game -- a harmless game of catch.
To "win" it is to let the spirits continue to play with the ball while
the quest goes on.


Next the questors encounter a dragon sitting upon a pile of treasure. The
game here is dragons's tail, The dragon will spit fire/use its breath
weapon at anyone who moves toward it. The idea is to get all the way to
touching the dragon's tail without being zapped.


Third game is the finger count; it is the first game with a resolution
that matters. The player can stake from 1 to 4 points of POW against
Trickster (c.f. Waha's Beastquest), who will stake 1 point of POW and a l
point anti-chaos rune spell. If one point is staked then with a choice of
five fingers the questor tries to guess how many Trickster will show.
Stake two points and you guess against four fingers, etc. The gains or
losses are permanent. The rune magic is a borrowed (or stolen)
Counterchaos Divine spell (see the Cult of Kyger Litor in any of various
sources). It is one-use to the player.


The fourth game is a game of knife/paper/stone played with the guardian
of the gate. This must be played until the quester wins. Each loss means
a d3 of damage to the questor's primary weapon arm. It is at this point
that the quest begins to get serious, since it is here that the questor
actually goes against the forces of chaos.


The fifth game is the roll of the venus dice (3d3), It was here that
Ruach asked for aid against the forces of chaos from those gods who
remained. Most told him that he should join in their attempt to preserve
civilization against its dangers (the chaos incursions), and leave the
Lady to her fate. Uleria offered him aid if he could beat her at dice. A
roll of 1-2-3 on the dice is the high, followed by three of a kind (3's
are high), Three chances to win. If win on the first roll, then a 3pt
Shield spell with 3 points of Extension is the reward. On the second
roll, the reward is 2 points of Shield with 2 points of Extension, on the
third roll, l point of Shield with l point of Extension. If the player
does not win by the third roll, he has been defeated by the Goddess of
Love.


The sixth game came with the rescue. This will draw the creature in the
area most tainted by chaos. This is the primary object of the quest, for
this creature guards the Lady. The sixth game is twenty questions.
Successful winning of this gains back from entropy the spirit of one who
had been lost, as an allied spirit.


What this means is that one riddles with the chaos tainted one. If the
chaos creature wins (by the questor answering less than half the
questions), it gets a free round of attack. If the questers wins, he get
back one spirit lost to entropy and ld6 free strike ranks (the creature
will still attack -- you don't think that chaos will give in easily, do
you?). Even if the questor dies, the spirit is freed if the chaos
creature is slain. If the questor dies and the chaos creature survives,
it will recapture the spirit.


The seventh game came when Ruach realized that he had retraced a pattern
he had found earlier. The last game is a simple game of tag with a
prepresenative of the Wild Hunter. If the questor wins this he gains 1
point of the Divine spell Wind Walk (see Tales of the Reaching Moon #4 or
#14). This spell is one-use unless the questor is a rune lord or rune
priest of an Air or Storm deity, in which case it is reusable. If he
loses, he loses 1 points of CON each time he is tagged. The Wild Hunter
has a movement rate of 6. The game begins when the first member of the
party gets tagged (and loses a point of CON). If the entire party gets
tagged within 2 minutes, the loss is permanent; if not, the points
recover at the rate of 1 point per week of rest. Since this will often
happen just after the great battle with the chaos monster....?


After the last game the party....???


Notes

On his previous quest, Ruach had a different reward for beating each of
the opponents. The quest proved the victory of air over the Blue Moon
(see The Blue Moon HeroQuest). She was defeated and shattered, and parts
of her were scattered and taken by various air creatures. She thus lost
the right to rise into the sky. By successfully winning seven games,
Ruach won seven tokens or rights. At the end of the quest, he was able to
trade them for several magic potatoes. Each of the potatoes was good for
the equivalent of a raise dead spell for the members of any earth or moon
cult.








----------------------- Headers --------------------------------
From ilium@juno.com  Tue Mar 18 21:10:57 1997
Return-Path: ilium@juno.com
Received: from x10.boston.juno.com (x10.boston.juno.com [205.231.101.25]) by emin13.mail.aol.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id VAA25479 for <Ethesis@aol.com>; Tue, 18 Mar 1997 21:10:57 -0500
Received: (from ilium@juno.com) by x10.boston.juno.com (queuemail)
	id VIX01568; Tue, 18 Mar 1997 21:07:56 EST
To: Ethesis@aol.com
Subject: Seven Sky _Games_
Message-ID: <19970318.180835.2087.6.ilium@juno.com>
X-Mailer: Juno 1.15
X-Juno-Line-Breaks: 0-2,7-8,18-19,23-24,33-34,39-40,52-53,58-59,67-68,
	80-84,93-95
From: ilium@juno.com (Stephen P Martin)
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 21:07:56 EST

  

Return to Top of Page
Return to Heroquest Index
Dave Dunham's Glorantha Home Page 
Look at Shattered Norns

©1996 Stephen R. Marsh
All Rights Reserved