EricW

Mythologically Trickster is good at swallowing chaos or anything else which annoys him. Of course, there would be consequences. The trickster would jump to the top of the most wanted list, loads of people would want to join trickster, and even the Orlanthi would be worried - I mean, even if you were a light bringer, would you really want a trickster who can swallow a small town anywhere near your place of residence?

Doable - a 400pt +/- Trickster Swallow spell, enough for the bat, the fleas and the riders. The rune magic spell is cast on the trickster, so it doesn't get absorbed. The trickster probably has some substantial bonuses to hit something as big as the bat. And when swallowed, the bat passes out of the mortal world into whatever strange realm things swallowed by the trickster end up - difficult for even the Lunars to reach. Now all the Trickster needs is to figure out how to get the power to sacrifice for such an enormous swallow spell.

Given trolls left the underworld after Orlanth killed Yelm, and all dead things (including trolls?) end up in the underworld, surely there are well trodden paths dead trolls could take which would return them to the surface world? Why isn't this a regular occurrence? After all, the surface world has lots of yummy food, and I'm guessing even dead trolls get hungry?

KOS suggests draconic consciousness comes before knowledge or magic. So unless something changed (maybe?), all you need to do is convince Eurmal to "split your tongue, brain and heart", and you'll become draconic. You can then approach dragons and have a chance of not being eaten.

The God Learners plundered the dark empire, at least some of them must have become illuminates. What I don’t understand is why wasn’t Thanatar a significant force amongst the God Learners? Consume mind seems a quick path to mastering all sorts of foreign skills and magics.

The first paragraph of "Call of Cthulhu" reads :- I'm guessing in the Cthulhu universe, an AI, with its superior ability to correlate and extract meaning from vast amounts of information, brings us a big step closer to that dread day of revelation ;-).

What is Yelm's attitude to chaos? Is it possible for a daughter to still be an associate cult, even though she is chaotic?

I don't think you have to look far. I know of at least two isolated communities, separate groups in my local region who are following someone they believe is the second coming of Christ. There are strange rumblings in the sea, leading to the occasional minor Earthquake, aboriginals practicing their ancient magic, private airstrips, swamps, boats calling by on the way to who knows where, and the occasional disappearance at sea attributed to a deadly jellyfish. Just as well Cthulhu is fiction, right?

Thanks for setting me straight Qizilbashwoman.

There is evidence of a Tunguska scale impact event in 1650BCE in the Fertile Crescent, which may have devastated the city of Tall el-Hammam in the late Bronze Age. An interesting event to incorporate into any regional Cthulhu narratives.

Maybe Leonardo’s lab is on the hero plane. People drop in and chat to him, leave useful ideas from all ages.

The liberator who succeeds will also be Argrath, just a different Argrath 😉

The summoning of evil is an obvious heroquest which draws in opponents regardless of their willingness. There is a beautiful example in “Orlanth is dead”. The moment the summons is complete, the Lunar army commander loses contact with command - but rashly decides to push on anyway, because the summons made his presence at the battle inevitable.

There are all sorts of potential reasons for making such a dangerous journey. For example, maybe they are there to rescue a critically important artefact stolen by the god learners, like a stolen wind sword which everyone believed was lost in the final machine city cataclysm. Thanks for the precedent.

Maybe there is a "Genesis of the Daleks" style heroquest waiting to be discovered? Obviously the Clanking City might not be entirely welcoming towards visitors who emerge out of the heroplane inside their city, given the magical attacks they were fending off towards the end?

Perhaps they died out in the gods war. Bringing them back could be an oddly disruptive heroquest, a whole lot of other things might also return, like elves with fire magic, who tend flammable Eucalypt forests which thrive in dry lands like Prax. Perhaps this is the missing link which leads to restoring Genert’s Garden.

I've always wondered, why are the Lunars so intent on destroying Orlanth? Why not follow Lokaymayadon's footsteps and try to subjugate Orlanth? Surely Tarsh would be the place to attempt such an experiment?

Maybe there is a case for using POW as CHA when Tusk Riders are interacting with other riders? Or Broo interacting with other Broo? A leader has to have charisma in some form, even if the only beings which appreciate it are their fellow horde.

Sure, have some mercy. Like if the Lunars are so incensed they're waiting just inside the gate to kill any barbarian who vaguely fits the description, the party could meet someone who somehow escaped the kill squad who could warn them. I doubt the Lunars would do anything like this, unless they were truly desperate, if the PCs became so powerful they were starting to threaten the Lunar occupation. Otherwise, the Lunar authorities would be complacently confident that sooner or later the bounty hunters will find the rebel scum, so no sense getting all emotional about it. If the PC party does something especially outrageous, just increase the bounty, and increase the scariness of the Lunar bounty hunters. The PCs will quickly discover they shouldn't stay in one spot too long, which makes it easier to ease them into new adventures.

Even more hilarious if the copper arrests everyone who looks suspicious in rebel infested areas. Because everyone does look suspicious. They’re all barbarians. Or if a patrol includes a psycho - “let’s kill them anyway”. How many times have you looked and not been sure they are someone you know or have heard of? It’s this fringe of doubt the lie would act on. I’m sure Lunars could work out a system, like putting deaf people in charge who can’t hear the lie, putting stupid people in charge who don’t understand the lie, a series of interlocking lookouts who can rush out and persuade soldiers at checkpoints they’ve been lied to. Or Yansfil cultists maintaining continuous “detect honour” spells at all checkpoints. All hilariously consequential - especially in the trickster has multiple uses of “lie”.

Surely the identity and criminal status of a group of PCs a perception of "fact" which can be manipulated by a lie spell. "We are not the people you are looking for" - its a lie, a mistruth about a fact. Of course, if this is abused enough Lunars might develop elaborate strategies for trying to protect themselves, like ensuring the leader of the patrol is deaf - which could lead to even more hilarity - "write more slowly, I can't read when you scribble too fast". The natural limit on this manipulation is local tolerance for tricksters running around with lie spell. Tricksters wouldn't only use lies for escaping justice, they'd heavily abuse this power for pretty much anything you could imagine. When you think about it from that perspective, its pretty obvious why the Trickster Great Temple in Slontos sank beneath the waves, it sank under the weight of all the lies.

Or the liar could say “we are not the people you are looking for” before they are arrested and separated.

At the weekend club BBQ the German chef complained that nobody was buying his potato salad. So I got a big red marker pen, circled the salad on the menu board, and wrote "try this" with the red pen. The potato salad sold out in an hour. Clearly it was the use of the demonic red pen... 🙂

I sure hope the party includes a trickster. That phenomenal lie spell could be used to convince hostiles they made a mistake. Lunars would face the absurdity of following them everywhere and not catching them. ”These aren’t the droids you’re looking for”

It’s actually a form of immortality. The owner of the head hierarchy promises to consult all heads before making decisions which affect the group. Meanwhile you can socialise and enjoy the amenities, while being part of a unique, vibrant, active community which caters for your needs, and respects your individuality and contribution.