A Pseudo Cosmic Egg

[Martin]

Back in 2015 @Jeff wrote a post in another forum.....

So in the Moon Design house campaign at the Festung Berlin headquarters, we got to really push the new Illumination rules for HeroQuest Glorantha (more on that soon). While aiding Argrath in finding a "pseudo-cosmic egg" they needed to follow the dissolution of the God-Soul down to the lowest level of the Stygian Basement and follow it/bring it to the Void. Dreading a confrontation with Argan Argar (since they had a piece of the Only Old One in their possession), the priestess Kassandra led them to the Cavern of Silence, where they demanded to know the Path Forbidden to the Gods - the Red Door to Beyond. They dissolved into Nothing but managed to more or less will their re-existence. With some assistance, they entered the Void and awakened their Third Eye, returning to Belintar's basement where they have discovered the egg.

So now we have three Illuminated characters - a queen, a high priestess, and a Chalana Arroy healer. We have an Illuminated but dying Trickster (poisoned by the snake of the high priestess after he betrayed her on the quest and the now-Illuminated healer is refusing to heal the character), and a totally sane, unilluminated bodyguard/assassin who is too entangled with his need for vengeance against another queen to accept these mind-bending revelations.

In other words, just a regular day in our HQG campaign.

NOTE: I hesitate to even try to describe how the Ernalda high priestess used her Fertility Rune breakout ability, augmented by her Earth Rune, to overcome and extinguish the Guardian of Fire. Or how the entire party nearly drowned in blood when they slew the Guardian of Earth. Or what abilities the players chose to reconstruct their ego-self. Or how paranoid the Red Shift Servants made them, or how freaked out they were by the Troop of Innocents.

 

Did anyone here play in this game?  If so, i would welcome them to message me thank you.

Edited November 3, 2021 by Martin

[David Scott]

3 minutes ago, Martin said:

Did anyone here play in this game?

Knowing the players in that group, there are none on this forum.

[Darius West]

Can you explain more about how you are using the Pseudocosmic egg?

[soltakss]

On 11/13/2021 at 3:26 AM, Darius West said:

Can you explain more about how you are using the Pseudocosmic egg?

Presumably to give birth to a deity.

After all, they have learned all the lessons of what could go wrong, so this time it should be OK, right? 

It's going to be OK this time, right?

Right?

 

[Martin]

Can anyone (@Jeff? ) speculate or infor me on the Red Shift Servants?

It seems they are the only shift that survived Belinrar's final demise...

so were the other shifts diffrent colours related to the districts of the City of Wonders? (Earth,Green, Wate,r Blue etc.)

So what district are the red shift from ...the Man District?

What did these servants do and what was their   natuure?

[Darius West]

6 hours ago, soltakss said:

Presumably to give birth to a deity.

After all, they have learned all the lessons of what could go wrong, so this time it should be OK, right? 

It's going to be OK this time, right?

Right?

I was actually interested in how you had figured it could be used to chase a God soul into the Stygian basement.  It sounded like a pretty novel idea, and I wanted to hear your reasoning.

Personally I link the psuedocosmic eggs to Draconic mysticism, and the birthing of abberant entities such as deities born illuminated, as in a hybrid deity/dragon.

As a side note, we don't actually know if Belintar is illuminated, but it is a good bet.

[jajagappa]

8 hours ago, Martin said:

the Red Shift Servants?

They could reflect a "time of day" rather than a district.  E.g. it's after midday, Yelm has once again been ritually slain, so now it's time for the Red Shift Servants to come on duty.

And if that's the case, they might have survived because Belintar's dismemberment reflects Yelm's dismemberment.  At least until "sunset", which could be the sacking of the City of Wonders.

[Joerg]

On 11/15/2021 at 12:19 PM, Martin said:

Can anyone (@Jeff? ) speculate or infor me on the Red Shift Servants?

It seems they are the only shift that survived Belinrar's final demise...

so were the other shifts diffrent colours related to the districts of the City of Wonders? (Earth,Green, Wate,r Blue etc.)

So what district are the red shift from ...the Man District?

What did these servants do and what was their   natuure?

To me it sounds like the services of the other shifts are no longer required, while those of the Red Shift Servants are still ongoing. 

These services could include rewinding prayer mills, refilling the reservoirs of water clocks driving such thaumic engines, or similar. Remember that Belintar had a couple of incarnations to visit and explore the Machine Ruins and their sorcery.

It isn't clear whether these servants are ordinary humans or lesser deities or magical constructs. And even "ordinary humans" can become something else if you look at the Constant Guard or other such pacts.

 

Phyllis Ann Karr's novelette "When the Wolf Pirates Came to the City of Wonders" has a rather normal human population persist in the city, possibly shielded from the outer reality that visitors observe. That population then transcends in 1624, as I read it into the magical realm of the Holy Country where the Tournaments of the Masters of Luck and Death happen.