Can Someone Swallowed by a Trickster be Resurrected?

[EricW]

The book says swallow just kills people. But things swallowed by Trickster in god time are just gone.

So the question is, do victims really die, or do they end up more or less intact but horribly trapped in Trickster’s stomach? If they don’t die, how could resurrection bring them back? How could non trickster divine intervention reach into the stomach of trickster?

[PhilHibbs]

I was playing a character that I wasn't particularly enjoying so he mysteriously disappeared and I started playing a trickster. When he was eventually executed, everything that he had ever swallowed "emerged" intact (but rather filthy) including the character that I had been playing previously.

"Your Trickster Will Vary".

Edited November 14, 2021 by PhilHibbs

[jajagappa]

10 hours ago, EricW said:

The book says swallow just kills people.

What fun is that???  You've just been Swallowed by the Trickster!  Of course you're going to end up somewhere else!

10 hours ago, EricW said:

So the question is, do victims really die, or do they end up more or less intact but horribly trapped in Trickster’s stomach? If they don’t die, how could resurrection bring them back? How could non trickster divine intervention reach into the stomach of trickster?

Divine Intervention is boring.  You've just been Swallowed by the Trickster!  Lots and lots of opportunity here.

So, as one example, in one of my games, the PC's were taken hostage by the Lunars encamped near Redbird Village.  Stripped of weapons, placed in the central compound as Rebels, crucifixion likely.  One of the other hostages was a Trickster.  Offered them a plan to get them (and himself) out by Swallowing them.  They agreed.

They found themselves at the edge of a precipice leading into a great cave filled by an acid lake.  However, there was also a closed metal door there.  They decided to try the metal door rather than plunging into the acid.  [Note: they could of course have just waited at the precipice until the Trickster vomited them back up - which he did say he was going to do.  Maybe a bit of acid damage if they had taken that route, but who trusts a Trickster?]

The doorway (which I assume was of Mostali origin - probably something Trickster tried to swallow at some point in the past) led in this case into the Boneyard.  Pretty much what it sounds like - a vast boneyard where giant red worms crawl through (I think I was inspired at the time by an old Ballantine cover of H.P.Lovecraft's works).  [Note: Could equally have been the gizzard of the Trickster - have to expect that at some point when the Trickster reassembled himself he added the wrong parts, or parts from other animals.]

They managed to escape the Boneyard, and ended up in some other part of the Underworld haunted by Lost Souls of their Past.  The Issaries merchant had some magic to help find a pathway out, but of course, one of the PC's chose to dash off the path to aid one of the lost souls.  The main group then found themselves amidst the Fog of Illusion - and within that the Ivory Tower of Lhankor Mhy being assailed by Lunar heroquesters.  They defeated the Lunars, and gained entry into the Ivory Tower, and after some wandering through the endless stacks, found themselves in the stacks of the Jonstown LM Temple library - much to the confusion of the sages!

That's just one possible path. 

This is the Trickster, so you could/should end up in almost any Trickster story or location.  By being Swallowed by Trickster, you enter his world and his stories.  Maybe you end up in Argrath's Dream (see Nick Brooke's Black Spear scenario) courtesy of Elusu.  Maybe you find yourself in the Trickster University in an improbable bubble city under the Sea (Hogwarts turned upside down and sideways?).  Maybe you're on the shore of the River of Swords, and Trickster is putting you back together, but slightly wrong or mixing parts of you up with parts of the others (you get so-and-so's Loyalty while they get your Honor).  Maybe you're vomited out in the Cloud Giant's Castle - and the Cloud Giant thinks you're what is good to eat, and you need to find a way down out of the clouds quickly (where's that beanstalk when you need it!).  Maybe you open the door and you're in the Boggle's Home on the Plateau of Statues, just in time for the dry biscuits coated in ghost pepper powder. 

Being swallowed is the perfect opportunity to go totally crazy, and end up in some really weird tales.

Edited November 14, 2021 by jajagappa

[jajagappa]

4 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Divine Intervention is boring.  You've just been Swallowed by the Trickster!  Lots and lots of opportunity here.

Extending on the thought of Divine Intervention here: clearly you're into the realm of myth if you happen to try Divine Intervention to get out.  What goes in, goes out the other end if you take this approach, but clearly ending up somewhere in the Gods World associated with whichever deity you invoked (or in Trickster's toilet).  But you're out of Trickster's gut courtesy of your god.  But it's time for the ritual presentation before your god to see if they grant your petition (you did request Divine Intervention after all), and you are all befouled.  Can't go presenting yourself to your god like that!  You need to be ritually purified first.  But where can you go for cleansing?  And what deity is going to help you out in your current state?  Meanwhile, Eurmal's having a good laugh...

[Garry]

IMG Swallow can be reversed (sometimes inadvertently) and what was swallowed by some other trickster is vomited up.

[soltakss]

On 11/14/2021 at 4:29 AM, EricW said:

The book says swallow just kills people. But things swallowed by Trickster in god time are just gone.

Are they? Some things swallowed by Trickster might have reappeared.

If you can get the body back within the time limit of Resurrect then you are fine.

However, getting the body back is the tricky but.

I don't think that simply making the Trickster vomit is enough, that is fine for normal food, but not for the swallow spell, I would think.

Forcing the Trickster to give up Swallowed items might work, if you could narrate ways of doing it,.

Forcing the items to leave "the other way" might be possible through magic, but would be painful for the Trickster.

Maybe the person swallowed might be able to HeroQuest their way back, if they are powerful enough HeroQuestors.

[jajagappa]

10 hours ago, soltakss said:

Maybe the person swallowed might be able to HeroQuest their way back, if they are powerful enough HeroQuestors.

I'd encourage a GM to find the way for them to heroquest back, even if they've never heroquested before!  This is clearly a story moment - not quite "over the rainbow" here, but an opportunity for impromptu heroquesting that helps players see how the fabric of the world might connect (and how you can suddenly veer into the Otherworld).

Doesn't need to be a long quest, but need to think about:  where do they land? (face down in the mud? in the Boneyard? in the Trickster University courtesy of a Trickster spell "gone wrong"?) and where/how might they escape? (LM's Ivory Tower hidden within the Fog of Illusion? an ancient Trickster shrine to the Glutton - basically reversing the course taken to get there? the Long and Winding Road? down the Beanstalk? out of the magical stew pot of the Giants?)

Then just piece together the 2-4 stations/steps from A to B.  There's got to be a Trickster "villain" to outwit.  There's probably some ally/helper to gain.  And there's the obstacle/antagonist who must be defeated in order to return home.  But lots of opportunity to go over-the-top with magic and effects here that even new PC's can overcome and get to see some of the wonders of Glorantha at the same time.

[Alex]

10 hours ago, soltakss said:

Maybe the person swallowed might be able to HeroQuest their way back, if they are powerful enough HeroQuestors.

They do say there's no successful heroquest without a Trickster element...  this one has it pre-supplied!

[Darius West]

On 11/14/2021 at 3:29 PM, EricW said:

The book says swallow just kills people. But things swallowed by Trickster in god time are just gone.

So the question is, do victims really die, or do they end up more or less intact but horribly trapped in Trickster’s stomach? If they don’t die, how could resurrection bring them back? How could non trickster divine intervention reach into the stomach of trickster?

The Trickster spell Regurgitate is quite capable of returning anything Swallowed, in fact it returns everything Swallowed.

[EricW]

16 hours ago, Darius West said:

The Trickster spell Regurgitate is quite capable of returning anything Swallowed, in fact it returns everything Swallowed.

Ah but are living things alive and intact? Or have their experiences changed them?

[jajagappa]

3 hours ago, EricW said:

Ah but are living things alive and intact? Or have their experiences changed them?

Heroes: probably if they proved truly heroic; and probably as they'll never quite see the Trickster the same again.

Villains and Demons: yes, of course; and no.

Others: probably dead; and now transformed into angry ghosts/wasps/locusts/or whatever plague you desire, who will pursue and plague the trickster until he can find someone to either remove the curse, or become the unwitting recipient of the curse...

[Sir_Godspeed]

On 11/15/2021 at 10:12 AM, soltakss said:

Forcing the items to leave "the other way" might be possible through magic, but would be painful for the Trickster.

 

In other words, perfect.

[Darius West]

On 11/21/2021 at 10:28 AM, EricW said:

Ah but are living things alive and intact? Or have their experiences changed them?

My dog once ate a mouse and threw it up.  The mouse was alive but looked like it truly wished it were dead.

[Alex]

34 minutes ago, Darius West said:

My dog once ate a mouse and threw it up.  The mouse was alive but looked like it truly wished it were dead.

Dogs can initiate to the Glutton subcult automatically without any test, by the sacrifice of 1 point of POW (if even).  Not called "wolfing down" for nothing!

"Focused, relentless -- tasting absolutely nothing!"