Byll

...incorporating open-top barrels of water for added duckomfort, (not very suitable off road without a leather splash-skirt to keep the water in).

...so the Natyrsa healer says to the Stormkhan "Are you looking at my ass?"

If Gloranthan ostriches are most effective in battle with only light (pygmy) human riders, Augners must be that much stronger / larger. Does that make the big 'terror birds' Phorusrhacidae a terran analogue?

Hellerites

Balazar? They have a dog yapping at the unbutchered stag being brought home

"It's not a white horse! It's a Palomino Zebra"

Do we know anything about unicorns' mythic ancestry? How (if at all) are they related to Hippogriff? Why do they have curative powers?

A 'geas' on his own mount perhaps? Such as it becomes super possessive and interposes itself between him and any women he encounters... (and a beating, at least if the rider is a Yelorna worshiper)

He could do something trickstery like claim he was drunk and mistook it for his riding hare, take a beating and then whinge about it for weeks afterwards...

You could give your Duke Raus a redeeming feature such as being a philanthropist robber-baron who has earned the respect the Horn Gate Healers. One of the Chalana Arroys can Lightbringer Summons the party for the first installment, and them you could show them what a tough time the poor guy has with his wild motherless daughter.

In Big Rubble the Yelornans are presented as having serious religious differences with the Red Moon, so the Seven Mothers followers in the tribe may be a significant splinter group rather than being fully integrated into the clans, or maybe one clan is more hard core than the other. Some of the men in the clan may have been acquired during raids but some may be more permanent members perhaps tending to be the Daka Fal followers. Might I suggest some of the men in the elementals be Pole Star cultists since Yelorna is recorded as having called Pole Star down to be the first Star Captain during the darkness ((removes bee from bonnet)).

I don't know if these were the Praxian Yelmalio figures that David mentions? from page 1 of the Yelmalio temples thread There are about 14700 Yelmalio worshippers amongst the Praxian tribes. The population of Sun County is only 20,000, given that half are children, the remainder is half men. That gives a maximum of 5000 Yelmalio initiates. The nomads outnumber them about 2:1. The structure of Yelmalio is different amongst the tribes - they have only Light Khans, no priests. So the Yemalio temples are their major worship temples. Yes they are welcome, and yes there are ancient pacts in place that prevent them overrunning the land. Look when the Praxian lords of Sun County ended for when these pacts came into place. Numbers for the interested: 7800 - Impala tribe 163 - High Llama tribe 5625 - Sable tribe 400 - Bison tribe (No Morokanth other than PCs:-) 225 - Agimori tribe 90 - Rhino tribe 90 - Ostrich tribe 40 - Unicorn tribe (No Baboons other than Melo Yellow and PCs) 158 - Bolo Lizard tribe 34 - Zebra tribe 42 - Pol-Joni tribe (No Basmoli or Newtlings other than PCs:-) Later it mentions 300 Yelorna worshipers who presumably are mostly in the unicorn tribe. If you assume that Cults of Prax's 40% Yelmalio includes Yelorna as well as Yelmalio then there might be around 1000 human members. However because of the unusual requirements, not all of the tribe necessarily ride a unicorn, some may ride the beast of the tribe that they previously belonged to. In the Prax and the 1000 questions about the place thread the total head counts were Sables 75000 (140 clans) (18 warrior counters in Nomad Gods) Bison 75000 (150 clans) (18 war counters) High Llama 60000? (120 clans) (14 war counters) Impala 115000 (230 clans) ( 28 war counters) Morocanth 75000 (150 clans) (19 war counters) Bolo lizard 2100 (4? clans) (1 war counter) Ostrich 1200 (2? clans) (1 war counter) Rhino ? ? (1war counter) Zebra ? ? (1 war counter) Long nose ? ? (1 war counter) Unicorn ? ? (1 war counter)

Old style RQ2 Cults of Prax said their religious make up was 7% Eiritha (Small cf Impala Bison and HighLlama), 3% Waha, 2% DakaFal, 2% StormBull, 2%Humakt, 20% SevenMothers, 40% Yelmalio, 2%Issaries, 8% Chalana Arroy, 4% Orlanth, 10% others. Favoured weapons are Composite Bow, Sword/axe, mounted lance. In Nomad Gods they hire out as mercenaries and have 1 counter (3 combat, 5 magic, 6 movement). They have received their amazing abilities from the Sun Daughter. Although without armour their telepathic link with their agile mounts gives them protection equivalent to armour. The mounts are not afraid to charge their foes with their long horns whilst their riders attack with arrow sword or lance. On an impale they can automatically withdraw the horn due to its tapered shape Most of the Unicorn Riders in the Big Rubble are at the Yelorna Temple in the Zebra Ruins. They help patrol the area along with the Pavis 'Royal Guard' One of them is an elf maiden. Unicorns are immortal and naturally nocturnal, the bond with their rider is more strongly felt by the mortal than the immortal part of the pairing, though unicorns will seek revenge on the killer of their rider if they know who that is. They are naturally solitary forest dwelling animals. In Prax they are a little greyer and shakier than in their natural habitat. they are not herd animals and do not act in unison, but make individual decisions as to what is best. Unicorns can learn spells and their horns and fresh dung have healing powers and can counter poisons, the unicorns privately laugh at humans who take their dung as a cure. it smells of violets but tastes terrible...

How about Praxian Pole Star? the great square dance caller in the sky.

There is also Encounter 10 in PGtA in which a party of Aldryami from the Pavis Garden travel to Sun County where they are allowed by treaty dating back to Arrowsmith times to worship Halamalao, though their visit unnerves and disturbs the Light Priests

a ) Mobility. b ) stasis. c ) truth. d ) Issaries. e ) illusion. f ) harmony. g ) disorder. h ) death a ) moon. b ) darkness. c ) storm. d ) earth. e ) sky. f ) water. ...but what in the Wonderhome do I know?

Yelmalio worshipers are sometimes invited into The Garden, but there is no known method of soliciting such an invitation. There is an elf from the stinking forest in the Yelorna temple as a Wanderer initiate. Yelmalio and Yelorna Cultists talk of re-ocupying Angle Fort on Yelmalio Hill, but so far the trolls have always frustrated any attempt to establish sky cultists near their other (elvish) enemies. Trolls eradicated the Aldriami presence north of the river during the occupation. Almost certainly non-cnonical, but in Tradetalk 8 and 9 some articles propose that the elves of the Garden are on good terms with the Mani clan (whose fort on Mani's Hill used to be called Earth Fort). Mani and Pavis both recognised a means to access the Green Age of Genert's Garden from Robcradle/Paragua/Pavis and Pavis retrieved some Green Age specimens which he sent to the Aldriami at Torch, prompting them to colonise The Garden quarter of the city. There is a redwood Elf?/Dryad? still in the Garden that was alive during the colonisation and awaits another visit from Pavis's masked messenger (possibly one of his actual daughters). Following Pavis's withdrawal to the doorless room, the elves considered that the Flintnail dwarves had become pre-eminent in Pavis's cult). The trade talk PDFs are available at DriveThruRPG.

In all honesty this is a tough question. Aldrya's followers (elves in particular) want to maintain or reestablish their traditional forests. Animal nomads use Oakfed to keep the forests at bay and maintain an open chaparral / prairie for their herds. There's the old bit in Varosh's travels about the 'Flower Bison' where the high status women are given a Brolian narl-flower which never fades if sung over each Godsday. They still have them a year later when he meets them again, and they have been approached by some elves near Adari and are running an underground droveway smuggling elves captured by the Lunars back to the forests in return for Praxian herd-beast tails that the elves obtain. So there's always 'ritual' to fall back on. Alternatively a clan might want a specialist to locate/'cultivate' medicinal plants on their travels (though these might be easier to get from Oasis people).

To make your Mum and Dad crazy...

I like the idea of the background system, is there flexibility for background passions be created for using lower stakes events for smaller mods (that avoid character ending up hobnobbing with major figures in heroquests and battles before they enter play)? I guess that a GM can work out something for himself, but might there be a couple of examples given of characters being created at intermediate ability-ranges between zero and hero? Personally I am much happier nearer the zero end where the world is not being worried about which side of bed a player got out of.

There's a rumour hook in PavisGtA along the lines of A merchant is offering big money for guards/guides/beasthandlers to join a caravan from Pavis to Kralorela - no previous expeditions have returned in living memory, but he claims to have special knowledge that will change that. Mind you, if you had made a profitable trade trip across the wastes, you might want to try to keep the secrets to yourself (as in the Newfoundland fishery)

I think being able to use wagons would improve the chances of trading more stuff profitably. Although the draught animals would probably still have to forage most days, some fodder could be carried, to get them through areas of unseasonable grazing. You still wouldn't want to haul much heavy stuff ('Prairie Schooners' had a load about the deadweight of a draught animal - 2000lbs or so). I'm not sure how much you can pack on an animal, it may be more efficient to use pack saddles than a wagon and 4 (Edit: Wikipedia says about 30% bodyweight for horses so it's slightly better than 25% for a wagon team of 4)

Can you use wagons on the chaparral around Pavis? or are they only good on a dirt road like the one to Sun County?

Thanks chaps, I'll look into those.