CBDunkerson

The book covers this. If the spirit is reduced to 3 magic points or less, or 5 fewer than an opponent it is facing in spirit combat, the pact ends. It seems like spirits captured by the shaman's fetch can do everything a spirit in a pact with the shaman could. Thus, making spirit pacts likely only makes sense to recruit multiple and/or more powerful spirits.

"Using a Rune spell literally channels part of the power of a god to affect the Mundane World; it is not an invisible act! The caster always exhibits some form of manifestation of the magical powers at their disposal. The caster might appear to grow larger (even if their SIZ is unaffected), burn with an inner glow, crackle lightning from their fingertips, or even start to physically resemble the image of the deity." pg 315

Ultimately this is a GM call, but the rules seem to describe all spirits "tied to a single Rune" as the normal (10% modifiers) level of this power, and the example given is all Death spirits vs the subset of those which are specifically Disease spirits. This case is a little less clear because the majority of spirits tied to the Air Rune are specifically air elementals. There may be some exceptions where another Rune is also involved, but whether 'air elementals' truly represent a significant distinction from 'Air Rune spirits' would likely depend on how many non-elemental Air spirits exist in your GM's game world.

Regardless of how we want to define 'living' in reference to fictional supernatural entities... the point is that Second Sight's text about detecting the POW of living creatures clearly does NOT exclude spirits because there are numerous references to using Second Sight to see spirits.

Neither a shaman's fetch (pg 356, 358) nor a spirit preparing to attack (pg 366) are 'stuck'... Second Sight allows both to be seen. "Shamans can see the spirits at all times using Second Sight..." (pg 366)

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying.

Spirits ARE living beings. Second Sight specifically allows you to see spirits whether they be in the spirit world, bound into an item, possessing a creature, a Shaman's fetch, or whatever.

So far there have only been a few passing references to Truestone in RQG. Mostly in connection with The Block. We know it is very rare, very strong, and can be used to make something called adamant about which we know even less. Presumably details will be in the gamemaster guide, but no reason to assume it will be markedly different from previous versions.

Read the example. It answers every one of those questions. Or: 'yes', 'yes', 'no'.

My take is that it lasts for the duration of the underlying ritual. So if you are sanctifying an area to perform a worship ritual it lasts for a day, but if done to perform a Divination ritual it lasts one hour per rune point spent on the Divination. Et cetera.

See the Vasana example on page 424. She started out as a Warrior, but once she became a Rune Lord she is treated as a Noble.

Based on the writeups and examples in RQG I got the impression that you only had to tithe the income from your occupation. There is no mention of having to tithe any of the loot recovered in the Vasana's Saga writeup on page 407. On the same page the standard 20% to the temples and 10% to the Lunars are described as percentages of the harvest. Other taxes are listed, but they are generally smaller and for specific circumstances / areas. Then on page 422 in the annual harvest / accounting writeup it is said that characters should pay cult tithes "from their occupation income". Nowhere is there any suggestion that magic items or even coins and valuables gained from adventuring are subject to the 20 / 30 / 90 percent 'income' taxes. That could certainly be assumed, but then it would seem odd that there are detailed rules for how occupation income must be taxed and not a word about spoils of adventuring or war. If you take enemy weapons and armor do you have to pay for those? Gifts from other party members or inheritance from family? My take is that for the vast majority of people the occupation income is the only source of income and thus it is the one which gets taxed. There is no 'Heortling IRS' with special rules covering every conceivable form of wealth transfer. Rather, there is a simple system based on occupation income which generates plenty of revenue to cover expenses. That's why the taxes are collected at Sacred Time after the harvest... because the income of most people is tied to the harvest. If they were actively seeking adventuring income they'd want to collect taxes on at least a seasonal basis so that they could collect some of it before the adventurers drank it all away or lost it in their next reckless scheme.

See the 'Spell Effects' description of Rune Magic on pg 315. I can't think of anything specific for the other types, though there is also a statement in the 'Spell Effects' section on pg 248 that implies all spells have sensory effects.

We know they are working on a 'Gamemaster Guide' with info on treasures, hero questing, and other subjects. However, we don't know when that will arrive or whether there will be other products before it.

My read is that you permanently lose one rune point even if the divine intervention attempt fails, rune masters may then expend any remaining unused rune points but can recover these through worship as normal, and anyone can also lose permanent power points.