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MOROCANTH THUMBS: THE QUEST
by Martin Crim
Permission granted to copy for non-commercial use as long as
credit is given
DESCRIPTION
Hairy black or grey thumb-shaped lumps of flesh. Usually
found in pairs, and usually on a Morocanth's paws.
ORIGIN
The Morocanth, alone among beasts, won Waha's contest to
keep their intelligence. They had a disadvantage because of
their lack of thumbs. Eiritha took pity on them, and showed them
how to get thumbs.
KNOWLEDGE
All Praxians know that Morocanth can get thumbs, and that
only about 1% of them do. Morocanth know that the priestesses of
Eiritha keep the knowledge of how to go about getting thumbs.
They will tell the secret to any Morocanth whom they like and
whom they believe can survive the quest. Morocanth also know
that they can take the thumbs off a dead Morocanth with a proper
prayer to Eiritha.
POWERS
With the thumbs, a Morocanth gets normal base chances in all
Manipulation and non-missile weapon skills. He or she gets a 5%
base in all missile weapons (except those with a base of 00% for
humans) and in Throw. He or she gains 5% in all current weapon
skills except natural weapons and Dodge, to a maximum of 100%,
and can use melee weapons without the special adaptations for
Morocanth paws. A Morocanth with thumbs does not have the normal
species maximums in manipulation and weapon skills.
PROCEDURE
The priestesses tell the quester that he or she will relive
the survival covenant contests. The quester must compete without
any tools. (Naturally, since this is Prax, cheating is expected.
There is no penalty for cheating unless the priestesses catch the
quester at it. The priestesses won't go out of their way to
detect cheating, but cannot ignore blatant acts in their
presence. The spirit-judge described below will actively watch
for cheating.)
First, the quester must live off the land for a week. This
represents the time before Waha's pact when all the people of
Prax were hungry. The quester must live apart from his or her
clan, without any herd men. This portion of the quest tests such
skills as Plant Lore, Animal Lore, World Lore, Tracking, Scout
Plains, Hide, Sneak, Run, and weapon attacks. Smart questers
make water the first priority: roll World Lore, with a bonus for
wet seasons and location. (Obviously, no roll is necessary if
the quester is on the banks of a river.) Finding food takes
Plant Lore or, in most times and places, the other skills listed
above. (Morocanth like to hunt from ambush, but can run down
prey by wearing it out.) Lack of adequate food or water
subtracts from the Morocanth's FP (or decreases fatigue level).
Ideally, the Morocanth is hungry but not to the extent of losing
FP.
The priestesses then summon a Waha spirit to possess a male
Morocanth and act as spirit-judge. (The Morocanth host must be
willing, and it is the quester's job to find someone who agrees
to it. This is one reason the ritual is rare.) The spirit-judge
goes and finds the quester, bringing with him a man. If the
spirit-judge sees either person cheating, he will declare the
other the winner of that contest.
The human opponent must be a warrior or hunter. In most
cases, the human is a recently captured man, but when captives
are scarce the quester pays an outsider to do the ritual. The
priestesses of Eiritha handle the transaction.
While the quester has been fending for himself, the man has
eaten the best food, exercised and practiced with weapons, and
not done any chores. (The Morocanth once tried using an old,
tired slave, but the quest failed.) The idea for a scenario here
is that the man is a PC, captured by or sold to the Morocanth.
The contests begin shortly after the spirit-judge finds the
quester, at the next following dawn or dusk. From the time the
spirit-judge finds the quester till the end of the contests, the
Morocanth and man must neither eat nor drink.
The Waha spirit-judge orders the quester and the human to
stand beside each other before him. The spirit-judge stands on a
rock or hillock. He declaims Waha's famous Call to Survival, and
then announces the terms of the contests. After that, the
spirit-judge does and says nothing except watch for cheating,
declare the winner of each contest, and cast Dispel Magic at the
end of the Magic Contest.
There are five contests in the ritual: the Race, the
Throwing Contest, the Firemaking, the Magic Battle, and the
Fight. The Morocanth almost always wins the Race and loses the
Throwing Contest. The Morocanth usually loses the Firemaking,
too. The winner of the ritual is the person who wins three
contests. It is possible there will be no winner.
The Race is a sprint of about 500 meters. The contestants
need to avoid getting too fatigued. The man can make the
Morocanth work for his victory, or hang back and save his own
wind.
The Throwing Contest begins immediately after the race ends.
Each contestant goes to a five meter wide circle traced in the
dirt. The circles are about ten meters apart. Then the man
throws rocks at the quester. Morocanth have no Throw skill, so
the quester cannot Throw back, but may Dodge (at the usual 1/2
skill). This contest ends when the man injures the Morocanth
(this requires a critical hit or a man with a 1d6 damage bonus)
or runs out of rocks. There are usually 5d10 usable rocks in the
ring. If the man did not injure the Morocanth, this part is a
draw, and neither side gets to count it as a victory.
The Firemaking starts immediately after the Throwing Contest
ends. The winner is the first person to start a fire. The
Ignite spell is a good way to win. If neither person has the
spell, and both try to light a fire the hard way, use DEX x 3 for
the human and DEX x 1 for the Morocanth. Roll after three melee
rounds, and each round after that. If both succeed in the same
round, the one with the lower DEX SR succeeds first; ties in DEX
SR go to the human.
The Magic Contest starts next, again with no pause. The
quester and the man cast spells at each other until one of them
cannot continue. This usually occurs when one or the other
succeeds with a Demoralize or Befuddle spell. If each falls to 1
or 0 MP without affecting the other, the contest is a draw, and
counts as a victory for neither.
The Waha spirit-judge Dispels the Demoralize or Befuddle,
and the Fight begins immediately. Both sides get to use weapons,
but do not have to. The spirit-judge lets the man pick up his
usual weapons and strap on a shield, but he gets no armor. The
winner is the person who can still stand after the fight. (The
Morocanth can stand on three legs, or even just the hind legs,
but cannot balance on one hind leg and fewer than two forelegs.)
If a contestant stays on the ground more than five melee rounds,
he or she automatically loses. (It is possible that this part
will also end in a draw.) Weapon magic, Healing, and the like
are allowed, but offensive magic is against the rules.
If the man wins three contests, the Waha spirit-judge sets
him free and gives him a herd animal. (If the man was already
free, he gets whatever the Eiritha priestesses promised to give
him.) The ancient law of Waha says that the Morocanth becomes
the man's slave, but few know about this.
If the Morocanth wins three contests, he gets the man's
thumbs, usually by biting them off. (If the Morocanth recruited
a free man to take part in the quest, they neglect to tell him
about this aspect of it.) He then sacrifices two points of POW
and, if he makes a Ceremony roll, the thumbs attach to his paws
and blend in with the rest of his flesh. For one point of POW,
the Morocanth gets one thumb, on a paw of his or her choice.
Because the Morocanth has stolen the man's soul-thumbs along with
his physical thumbs, the man cannot use Regrow Limb to regain his
thumbs.
ALTERNATE PROCEDURE:
A Morocanth can also take thumbs off a Morocanth who has
been dead less than ten minutes. The Morocanth sacrifices a
point of POW per thumb, makes a Ceremony roll, and, if he or she
is successful, the thumbs graft onto his or her paws. If the
roll fails, the thumbs are useless.
The Jewel-Bird
DESCRIPTION
A hummingbird made of gems. It is ruby-throated, the green
of its wings and head is emerald, the black markings and beak are
obsidian, and the white of its body is white jade with green
tint, all carved to resemble feathers. Its eyes are clear
diamonds. It is seven centimeters long, with a twelve centimeter
wingspan. It weighs about 60 grams.
ORIGIN
This was the work of a Second Age Arkati craftsman named
Wilchia. He lived and worked most of his life in the court of
the king of Handra. He made several of these birds for his
patron, who gave them away as gifts to foreign potentates. As a
result, a jewel-bird could turn up almost anywhere.
KNOWLEDGE
Stories of the Marvelous Jewel-Bird, and the sorrow it has
caused, are popular in some parts of Maniria. In the most common
version of the story, the bird caused kinstrife which ended with
a king and his six sons dead, and the kingdom in ruins. A blind
troll then makes off with the bird, but does not know its command
word.
A few people know that there is more than one.
Yelm, Yelmalio, and other solar cultists see the bird as
blasphemous. They may try to free the spirit in the bird,
believing that it must be a bird spirit.
POWERS
The bird is primarily a toy. It is said to banish grief and
despair, but that is not always true. It delights those who can
appreciate it. It annoys people who can only think about the
waste of magical resources going into something trivial.
The bird has a brass frame inside, enchanted to hold a bird
spirit. A command word activates the bird, and causes it to fly.
Due to the restrictions in the enchantment, this is the only
magical effect that can occur. One cannot target spells against
the spirit without putting a hole in the bird first.
When someone says the command word, the spirit in the bird
casts its spells. Animate Brass makes the bird flap its wings as
fast as a real hummingbird would, but the bird flies through use
of the sorcerous Fly spell. The spirit sees the world through a
Sight Projection. The spirit has INT 13, POW 18. It knows its
three spells at 95%, and knows none of the sorcerous manipulation
skills. It acts just like a real hummingbird, and has a tendency
to wander away if it can. In the stories about it, this is how
the trouble starts.
There is another spirit in the object, in a POW spirit
binding enchantment. It has POW 18.
PROCEDURE
Make a brass frame and put a magic spirit and a power spirit
binding enchantment on it. The magic spirit should know Animate
Brass, Fly, and Sight Projection. Then craft a king's ransom
worth of gems to look like feathers and attach them to the frame.
Then make a user restriction on the binding enchantment so that
no one but the enchanter can use it, and "attack" and "target"
conditions that cause the spirit to cast its spells when someone
speaks the command word. Link the magic spirit enchantment to
the POW spirit enchantment.
The Cage of Bones
DESCRIPTION
A cage about 1.25 meters in each dimension. It is made of
the long bones of a sentient species, usually human. In most
cases, lead or iron joins the bones together. One Vadeli
sorcerer used Form/Set Bone to mold the bones to each other, even
making hinges for the door that way.
ORIGIN
The secret of making these cages comes from the West, but no
one wants to take the blame for inventing them. Vadeli,
Brithini, and various heretical Malkioni make them now. In Guhan
and Halikiv, Zorak Zorani make them, having learned the ritual
from the Arkati.
KNOWLEDGE
In the West, the cages are well known in whispered legend.
Few admit seeing one, because that raises hard questions. Most
people know that the cages trap people with magic, but know no
more than that.
POWERS
To force someone into a cage of bones, one must overcome
that person's MP with one's own. Each attempt takes a melee
round. If the victim physically resists, the attacker must also
keep the victim at the door to the cage.
Once inside the cage, a person has to overcome the cage's MP
to do anything. The cage's MP are in the 30 point range. The
prisoner has to roll MP v. MP to cast a spell, to try to break
out, or to call upon a saint, spirit, or god. Each attempt at
resistance takes 1 MP. The prisoner's will power fades away, so
that after an hour, he or she cannot resist the cage. The
prisoner can not regain MP inside the cage.
If the prisoner dies inside the cage, his or her spirit
stays there. Even if the corpse leaves the cage, the spirit
cannot leave by itself. No psychopomp comes to take the spirit
away. The spirit can attack any being that enters the cage. A
person outside can use a spell to order the spirit to leave.
Once the spirit gets out, it is a ghost or wraith and can regain
its MP normally.
If the cage takes more damage than its AP (6 for a basic
cage), its magic ends. Any being or spirit trapped inside can
then leave and regain its lost MP, though it will not go to the
proper afterlife unless someone performs the correct funeral
ritual over it.
PROCEDURE
Make a cage. This takes the bones of at least three
sentient beings, sacrificed in the ritual of making the cage.
The magician traps the spirits of the sacrifices, and binds them
into the cage.
The magician needs to spend at least 2 POW for each of the
binding enchantments. The cage ritual takes another point of
POW. If the magician fails to make at least three binding
enchantments, or fails in the Cage of Bones Enchanting Ritual,
the cage does not have the powers listed above. The Ritual is a
woven magic, which does not require an additional spell, merely
knowledge of how it is to be performed.
The POW of the cage equals the total POW of the bound
spirits that went into making it. The bound spirits function
only as part of the cage, not as magic spirits or any other kind
of spirit.