EricW

The Yakuza was sent to retrieve a valuable artefact from the occult professor. The rest are there to help identify the artefact.

Argrath lit the flame of Sartar, and won victories, so Orlanth clearly approves of his dragon and sorcery weirdness. Not sure if anyone else gets a pass, unless they are well known as an Argrath associate. “Do you want to raise another dragon? Idi*t leave the high magic to those what understands wot they are doin!”

There is a real world example to draw on which made me think of Arkat societies when I learned about it, the battles fought in the Bethlehem church of the nativity, between different Christian societies. They all mostly have the same goal, but have big disagreements over who gets to do what, and who the apostate is. The Muslim authorities mostly leave them alone, and have respected the rights of Christians to practice their religion in Bethlehem since the Second Caliph 'Umar ibn al-Khattāb conquered the region in AD 637. Even Saladin allowed some Christians to continue to use the church, after he retook the city from the crusaders.

I always understood "Invisible Orlanth" to be Orlanth as the invisible god, a sorcerous Orlanth cult. There was a thread discussing Invisible Orlanth here. Of course sorcery might not always be an advantage. An "Invisible Orlanth" worshipper who starts wielding sorcery in Sartar, where everyone knows sorcery is an evil magic wielded by Lunars, soulless god learners and illuminates, might receive a hostile reaction - especially if there are any Orlanth shaman tradition types around.

I think the science point is key. Mythos magic is science, alien science beyond human comprehension, except maybe to the very smartest humans. And you really don’t want to expose lots of smart humans to the mythos. ”.., if superior minds were ever placed in fullest contact with the secrets preserved by ancient and lowly cults, the resultant abnormalities would soon not only wreck the world, but threaten the very integrity of the universe.…” - The Horror at Red Hook, HP Lovecraft.

Both good. "... Cursed the ground where dead thoughts live new and oddly bodied, and evil the mind that is held by no head. Wisely did Ibn Schacabao say, that happy is the tomb where no wizard hath lain, and happy the town at night whose wizards are all ashes. For it is of old rumour that the soul of the devil-bought hastes not from his charnel clay, but fats and instructs the very worm that gnaws; till out of corruption horrid life springs, and the dull scavengers of earth wax crafty to vex it and swell monstrous to plague it. Great holes secretly are digged where earth's pores ought to suffice, and things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl. ..." - The Festival, by HP Lovecraft. In a sense it doesn't matter. Any adventurer who doesn't burn the village down after saving it is asking for trouble, in the mythos universe. And even the corpse of the creature, rotted into goo or just sitting there, could cause SAN loss and who knows what havoc. Just because it stopped moving, you can't be completely sure it can no longer cause harm - the mythos operates on rules beyond human understanding. "Death is just the beginning" applies with a vengeance to the Cthulhu Mythos. Burnt ashes are more difficult to resurrect, and less likely to cause trouble - though not impossible to resurrect. And if I ever find myself in Arkham, like a real life "In the Mouth of Madness" experience, I'm not drinking the water.

Eurmal gave death to high king elf under dubious circumstances. If you find a trickster who just stole the humakt cult sword back after his Orlanthi pal used the stolen sword to kill a yelm priest, you could probably create a bow which is a heroic manifestation of death. Perhaps a sever spirit with every hit, damage vs power. Of course setting all this up could be a challenge, like finding a trickster willing to walk into a Humakt temple and steal their most treasured relic.

The god which burns water could probably provide an underwater fire spell, but summoning the god was a feat the God Learners performed at the height of their power, so you're probably talking serious hero quest to get access to such magic. I've no idea whether standard speed dart or true spear or whatever works underwater. I'd suggest probably not - you probably need a water magic version of those spells (true harpoon?) to work properly underwater. Though the watery version should probably be penalised if the projectile enters the air, the water gods and air gods have fought several battles.

You can trickster spells up as you go - like I just made up "Trickster Gift" - which causes a random attribute change which you hope will wear off in 15 minutes. Witnesses have to roll int x 5 or collapse laughing. Or "Eurmal's Harmony" - area effect spell, causes everyone to talk over each other and leave the meeting with the impression that everyone agreed to everything they suggested. Or "Telefart" - causes a stink to appear at a chosen location within line of sight of the caster. Or "Eurmal's Flight Spell". This one actually allows the trickster to fly, but requires the user eat a bowl of beans or a hot spicy dish before attempting the spell.

Trickster magic frequently causes things to go wrong without the help of unexpected effects if the PC is playing it right 🙂 Seriously you don’t need unexpected effects for a PC trickster to get into a lot of trouble. Mastery of stealth skills comes quickly to trickster PCs. Consider the spell “Trickster gift”, which causes a random attribute change which you hope will wear off in 15 minutes. Witnesses have to roll int x 5 or collapse laughing.

Playing a trickster is pretty deadly so I would reserve this for tricksters who are treating their magic like a source of power, rather than doing their best to amuse their god with their antics. Or you could play a mythos style system, subtract the number of rune points or learned feats from a hundred, then roll under that number for everything to go right :-). A trickster with a hundred rune points of magic would be fearsome source of disorder

Every cult connection is a hero quest. So to become a Wind Lord I would suggest you need to pay homage to something important from Orlanth’s life, like kill a dangerous monster threatening the tribe.

Eurmal PCs are great fun to play. The other members of the party tend to barely tolerate them because they are so useful, invisibility spells, thief skills, and that awesome lie spell. But of course nobody is immune to the pranks. Eurmal PCs are a lot of trouble to be around. Why bother paying for anything when you can use the formidable magics of your god to steal or cheat? Its pretty much a religious duty. Eurmal PCs never run out of money, between pick pocket or emptying the money box while everyone is busy fighting over WHO STOLE THAT COW, they always have a pocket full of cash. Of course, any associate of the trickster could get in trouble hanging around their "friend" - the cowardly trickster can just turn invisible and hide in the corner, leaving the other PCs to deal with the angry mob. I think its important to hand out power in tiny drabs, otherwise Eurmal players can power game up to pretty much invincible very quickly. Remember there is no rule against tricksters using magic on each other, so approaching a powerful shrine like lie or strike, the PC has a fair chance of becoming a victim to the very magic they are seeking to learn. This of course can involve the entire party in ridiculous delusions or dangerous encounters. Visiting the temple in Slontos would be unimaginably dangerous, Eurmal likely has an infinite range of spells, and a great temple, where all of those spells would be available, would attract powerful trickster heroes who would have no compunction over attacking the PC, if there was anything in it for them.

That's a very good point - maybe the lunar sorcerer could ask the PC a few riddles...

In “Orlanth is Dead” they talk about returned hostages who behave like Lunars (dirtshines) and lots of spies. Think Vichy France. I think Tom would be in big trouble, everyone would assume the Lunar sorcerer was his spy handler. But they would be frightened to act openly, because of the risk of Lunar retaliation. More likely a knife in the night or an accident.

Who caused the rise of the dragon which devoured the reaching moon temple in Sartar? Kallyr? Argrath? Someone else?

The Saint - he steals from criminals, usually by deception, lies a lot, rarely kills people. Sometimes nice to people, tries to give money to victims, sometimes harsh, like when he branded a rapist on the face with a red hot iron. The Stainless Steel Rat - a criminal who rarely kills, who is sometimes persuaded to help hunt worse criminals. Married to one of those worse criminals, a murderous lady who had a conscience surgically implanted, after a career of mayhem. The implanted conscience wears thin every time she thinks he is looking at other women.

Gloranthans can always ask their gods or use a magic compass. There are probably some spectacularly detailed maps, created by sages, EWF and god learners, but most people probably don’t need such precision. ”Hey Eurmal, I need some directions..,” 🙂

An illuminated Trickster is surely a follower of Eurmal the destroyer, Eurmal the world wrecker, who kept stealing death and passing it around for laughs - Eurmal before he got scared of all the vengeful victims relentlessly pursuing him, and ran to Orlanth for help.

I suspect more likely it was one or more of the cultists who inadvertently caused the devastation. Imagine academic rivalry in place of study where there were an infinite range of prank spells available, and everyone knew God Learner sorcery to extend the intensity, range and duration of those spells. The God Learners likely found all the power they hoped for, but lost interest in using it, except on each other. No doubt those magics included lunar / draconic style mind links, so the duration and intensity of the spells they learned was only limited by the number of people in their faction - Eurmal loves over the top special effects. But before they could share this discovery with outsiders, the academic rivalry got completely out of hand, with Eurmal himself whispering new ideas into the minds of rivals smarting under the latest outrage from their colleagues. The water will recede as soon as the Eurmal great flood spell duration expires, or someone casts a really powerful dispel magic.

Image enhancement is your friend. This deck plan has been processed by GIMP filter unsharp mask default settings. Original: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/PS_Violet_(1880)#Media/File:SS_Violet_1880_Plans.jpg

I understand your concern, but if you think about it mythos knowledge provides a counter to excessive rewards for defeating threats. People with very little mythos knowledge might be able to recover lots of sanity, but as your mythos skill increases, your maximum sanity is capped - effectively you are becoming increasingly aware of how little difference your minor victory has made to the overall threat.

One interesting point, soap has other uses than washing. According to “Wild Food in Australia”, the Australian aborigines used a soap producing plant to hunt fish, messed up their gills. Kind of a Stone Age version of dynamiting the lake, they used a natural soap instead of dynamite.

Soap is not an essential part of cultures - there are records of peoples who rarely washed. For those who did use soap, many of them used plants. There are plants don't need any processing or need minimal processing to produce a soap, just pick the flowers or roots or whatever and start crumbling them into a lather. Or just pick the lumps of fat which drip into the ashes of the fire, they're already soap - fat + soda ash from wood fires + heat = soap. No idea what Gloranthans would do. Plenty of magic, and a much lower risk of death by disease. Probably widespread knowledge of plants, or simple magic cantrips which make the dirt jump off. Worst case you could always hit that verruca with a disrupt spell.

But what do they eat? 🙂