jajagappa

That sounds like a GM issue, not one with the cult per se. The major gods (storm, sun, earth, darkness) are powerful because they are broad and primary. Hunters are not; and the basic magical choices and options for 'cult' advancement within Odayla or Yinkin or Foundchild will naturally be more limited. The great thing with RQ was the ability of a PC to advance in multiple ways not limited to class (or cult or occupation). The GM has to be able to explore with the player what advancement makes sense. Is it skills as a Master Hunter? Is it knowledge of the Great Forest in the Spirit World? Is it recognition that Odayla is the Sky Bear (aka Orlanth's Ring) and that he is the power of the Storm too? Or that Odayla is the stead of the Red Goddess, the Moon Bear that turns the Sky Dome and that she is the power of the Moon too? All these are ways of advancement. All these can be achieved within the context of RQG. It's just not going to be spelled out as with a D&D Ranger class.

Unfortunately it's in the reprint at some time stage. Still worthwhile picking up the pdf.

It's part of a special exhibition on saddlery at the National Museum of Iceland, but unfortunately I didn't record where the piece originated. However, the writing on the piece is definitely a Scandinavian name and has a date of 1770 on it so my guess is Icelandic. The whole piece is visible here: http://www.thjodminjasafn.is/english/faldar-undirsidur/current-exhibitions/splendid-saddlery

They don't export those. 😉

Yes, could definitely see that. Could be fun to have players narrate what form/shape their characters have taken. PC's from the Red Cow clan might take the form of red cows/bulls. Or a bull-headed man or even man-headed bull (ala the old Assyrian gates). Or maybe a Humakti is a free-floating sword. Ernaldans might be varied types of snakes or like snake mothers. Lot of interesting possibilities - but I'm sure that whatever they choose the first time that they will be largely locked into that form in subsequent Spirit Plane ventures.

Buried in the Big Rubble, adventurers have discovered jars containing ancient cheese imported from distant Imther. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/science/oldest-cheese-ever-egypt-tomb.html

Pages from a bestiary of sea creatures plundered from the Lhankor Mhy temple in the City of Wonders.

The skeleton of a large coastal bird from the Three Step Isles, now thought to be extinct.

The skull of a monstrous broo, probably taken as a trophy after careful purification and cleansing rituals.

An Orlanthi ceremonial mask of an unknown deity.

Another carved plank, this of a sea monster devouring a ship's crew.

A carved plank, perhaps from a Holy Country ship taken in the aftermath of one of Harrek's raids.

More of the decorative saddle from Teshnos. Believed to be of a rubble runner. Note: it might also be a rare long-tailed morocanth or a morocanth heroquester with it's companion rubble runner.

Part of a decorative saddle presumed from Teshnos given the lush vegetation.

A carved wooden panel, perhaps of a dragon, from a Dragon Pass chieftain's hall.

A sea serpent devours (or perhaps vomits up) some poor soul.

Some treasures from an Yggs Isle horde, found on the isle known to locals as the Iceland. Here in this tapestry fragment a gigantic creature of chaos devours the limb of a god.

Obviously the former are what the Etyries merchants calibrate their scales to while the latter are what your average adventuring party receives - well clipped by cunning clan chiefs.

Which older sources? It's hard to comment across 20+ years of possible references. I know some older material came from a specific GM's campaign (Martin Laurie's maybe?) and certain references from that (e.g. Gudnystead, Gwandor clan) have been renamed/replaced. As the most canonical/recent, I'd just go with what is in Coming Storm re: Cinsina/Culbrea/Dinacoli/Torkani/Maboder. It seems most complete on these. Similarly for Colymar/Lismelder/Malani, I'd go with SKoH, Sartar Companion, and RQG. Personally, I'd prefer to keep these as the 'documented' tribes/clans, and let GM's figure out the rest as need/interest arises.

Love, love, love the giant duck head! That will definitely make it into one of my games. 😀

I'd just do a shaman-led ritual within a protective circle where the PC's consume some substance (hazia, black elf dust, etc.) that allows Discorporation. The PC's bodies are vulnerable of course since they have no fetch. Once discorporate, they are led by the shaman to whatever the common starting point is. The shaman leads the Spirit Travel, but the PC's must be able to use their Spirit Combat. I've allowed them to carry certain spirit world related objects into the Spirit Plane to help (e.g. Sword Grass transforms into 'swords' in the Spirit World that can inflict spirit combat damage).

I'm not sure if it was originally done or not to calculate the math stats, but I've found there are some odd effects at the points where you cross mastery boundaries (e.g. High Resistance goes from 20 to 1W). At 20, you either get critical, success, or fumble - there is no fail. When you move up to 1W, you get critical, fail bumped to success (if PC has no mastery) or simply fail, and fumble. I've ended up creating an intermediary level of Quite High Resistance (starting at 6W) to get a better level of interaction/opposition (particularly where PC's are likely to get a specific ability bonus + augment). Over the course of play I generally agree that there feels like there is something missing in both the levels for High Resistance, etc. as well as the effects of advancement. Interesting thought. May be more interesting than the +1. I could almost see it depending on the Level of Victory effectively achieved by the PC's in the season's climax. I still like the approach that if you don't use it, then it can be applied to experience (and will certainly keep that in my game). But they never carryover into the new session/season. I like this. I may explore this when I get to my next 'season'. Interesting thought. Do you carry over the 'defeat' but gain a Hero Point? Or risk a subsequent defeat because you haven't bumped up your Hero Points? It makes me think that this is a way for PC's to drive a Pass/Fail cycle in the game.

I think this makes the most sense for trolls, elves, and dwarves - all have much different perspectives than short-lived, violent humans.

No specific rune spells are assumed. Vasana is likely to find Lightning or Shield the most useful. For Yanioth, it would be Summon Earth Elemental, Inviolable, maybe Charisma. I don't recall Sorola or Harmast using Special Rune Spells. Spirit Block and Heal Wound IIRC were the most important and both are common.

Between the time of the Quickstart and the Core book release, the availability of special rune spells was changed. Originally it was going to be that you just acquired Rune Points and could use for any available Common or Special Rune spells. I'm not sure what the designers specific reasons were for the change, but it did resolve three issues: overpowered young initiates who could cast any available spell; the ability to distinguish special rune spells only available to higher level status members; and the ability to have PC's quest to find temples with more unusual spells. I ran the Quickstart with the original usage. It was fine. When I moved on to a full campaign with the updated rules, I just had my players adjust down to a number of available special rune spells equal to their rune points. Possible some players wouldn't like making that adjustment, but no issues in my group.