Spells for Odayla

[Darius West]

On 6/30/2022 at 5:25 PM, Jeff said:

Odayla doesn't have Darkwalk. He's a bear, not a troll. 

But is he a black bear?  

[Darius West]

On 6/30/2022 at 8:47 AM, Akhôrahil said:

I don’t think it’s wrong for any elemental diety to have an Elemental spell for that element.

Dark Walk should work balance-wise - it’s a great spell, but Odayla isn’t exactly overpowered - but doesn’t have an obvious myth to explain it.

Because Ernalda was off visiting Asrelia, Orlanth went out carousing with Yinkin and Mastakos .  As he wanted to do as he pleased and didn't want to get in trouble, he took the sandals of darkness.  After a night on the tiles at Minlister's, Orlanth crawled home drunk and went to bed, but his sandals were muddy so he left them on the back doorstep vowing to clean them the following morning.  Odayla however had been out hunting that night unsuccessfully and he found Ernalda wasn't home and there was nothing to eat, so he set about rooting through the rubbish for scraps because he was ravenous.  Then he saw the sandals.  Odayla was so  hungry he ate them because they were leather and smelled gamey, like the feet of a troll witch.  Orlanth awoke with a terrible headache and went outside and found his muddy sandals missing and his son Odalya comatose, with mud on his mouth, lying more or less where the sandals had been.  Taking his lariat and stick, Orlanth bound Odayla in his sleep and then whalloped him repeatedly for his theft.  The sandals didn't agree with Odayla's digestion, and the rude awakening brought on a round of terrible nausea, and he puked up the sandals, but thereafter found that if he took the form of a black bear, that he was far better at sneaking about in the shadows than before. 🤮😝👍

[French Desperate WindChild]

1 hour ago, Darius West said:

But is he a black bear?  

big issue if he is a star bear, sandals should not be enough

[Joerg]

3 hours ago, Darius West said:

But is he a black bear?  

A grizzly. Grizzly Peak is where Vingkot slew the Sylilan Odaylan bear hero/demigod challenging him for the crown...

[JRE]

Hunting tools depend on the terrain and the prey.

Only in flat grasslands will bows be the main hunting weapon (long lines of sight for both prey and hunter, few obstacles).

In wooded hills, javelins will be better, but for large prey I would expect spears and ambush or hunting animals, specially for boar, venison or bears, which I expect is what Odaylans and Yinkini hunt. And lots of traps.

Slings and pellet bows would be used against birds, mainly for the easy, cheap ammo, as you are bound to miss a lot, as well as glue and nets. Weapons need to be extremely cheap or reusable. Projectile weapons in wooded areas will mean lots of missing projectiles.

I expect many Odaylans hunt by becoming prey, and hunting aggresive animals, besting them by brute force. That makes them fairly useful to the clan, but forces them to live in the outskirts. Their magic seems appropiate for this.

Yinkin will be an ambush hunter, usually with the noisy human as the beater and the alynx as the killer, possibly with the human joining the alynx with a spear if the prey is big or dangerous. No need for missiles either, as that would put the alynxes at risk of friendly fire, so you need to get close and personal to minimize risk.

I see Foundchild as the lone hunter, and being alone less willing to engage in close combat. In Dragon Pass they use slings or flint arrows against small game, and bronze javelins, possibly with long thongs to recover them, both for fishing and big game. Flint arrows because you can make your own, so it is not so bad if you lose a few each hunt. Once you are good enough you may have a few good arrows for special or dangerous prey.

 

[PhilHibbs]

Another option is to say that rather than worshipping Odayla as an independent cult, instead you worship Orlanth the Bear (the Odayla subcult). You'd just need to figure out which Orlanth spells the subcult gets, so then you have Odayla plus a bunch of Orlanth spells. Not all, maybe not flight as bears aren't known for that. And maybe not all associate cult spells either.

[Rodney Dangerduck]

3 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

Not all, maybe not flight as bears aren't known for that.

That's for the Squirrel subcult, Rockyla.

[David Scott]

14 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

Not all, maybe not flight as bears aren't known for that

Except of course when he's the sky bear: The Sky Bear has many names. He is identified with Umath, Orlanth, or Odayla by the Orlanthi; called Karborn in Sylila; Arakang by the Pelorians; and is called Rathor by the Rathori Hsunchen. From the upcoming Prosopaedia.

Odayla is both the hunter and the hunted.

[Darius West]

On 7/4/2022 at 3:45 PM, French Desperate WindChild said:

big issue if he is a star bear, sandals should not be enough

To fill his belly?  Likely not, I agree.

[Lordabdul]

On 7/5/2022 at 2:13 AM, David Scott said:

Odayla is both the hunter and the hunted.

In my headcanon, he is the cult for FBI profilers -- I have a book of "outlier" NPCs I might never finish, and the Odayla character is inspired by Will Graham from Red Dragon/Manhunter/Hannibal: he can put himself in the head of those he hunts, to a disturbingly intrusive and psychologically dangerous degree. He can indeed become both the hunter and the hunted.

Edited July 9, 2022 by Ludovic aka Lordabdul

[Shiningbrow]

16 minutes ago, Ludovic aka Lordabdul said:

In my headcanon, he is the cult for FBI profilers -- I have a book of "outlier" NPCs I might never finish, and the Odayla character is inspired by Will Graham from Red Dragon/Manhunter/Hannibal: he can put himself in the head of those he hunts, to a disturbingly intrusive and psychologically dangerous degree. He can indeed become both the hunter and the hunted.

Odayla???

Make him a Lhankor Mhy... high Insight (Human), plus the various mind affecting spells.....

[David Scott]

8 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

Odayla???

Make him a Lhankor Mhy... high Insight (Human), plus the various mind affecting spells.....

But that is missing the point of the hunter and the hunted. As the hunted he can understand the motivations of the prey. As a lhankor Mhy you have another just another investigator type (Poirot, Holmes, etc) as opposed to criminal turned detective (Red in the Blacklist, etc).

[French Desperate WindChild]

Continue like this… and we will find that odayla and LM are associated : LM provides enhance INT to odaylan and Odayla provide bear’s Transformation to the scholars 

😉

[soltakss]

3 hours ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

Continue like this… and we will find that odayla and LM are associated : LM provides enhance INT to odaylan and Odayla provide bear’s Transformation to the scholars 

That's the bear truth

[svensson]

Well, I'm gonna make a wild guess that a de-clawed or de-fanged beast isn't as 'impressive' as a fully capable beast, and 'impressive' is what the judges are looking for.

Let's look at what would be impressive:

[these are generalities... you can easily find outliers]

-- Carnivores are more impressive than herbivores.

-- Live is more impressive than dead

-- Fully capable live prey is more impressive than de-fanged prey

So bringing in a live sakkar that's under Control Beast effects is more impressive than a grizzly bear pelt. But [and I admit to using an outlier here] bringing in a live aurochs under Control Beast [for which some clans are Heroquesting, trying to bring them back to Sartar and fulfill a prophecy] is even MORE impressive.

All that being said, the wise Master Hunter candidate does two very important preparations:

-- He thoroughly scouts an area to have an idea of what prey is there and what he'd like to bring back

-- Sacrifices enough POW to have Control Beast [whatever] and enough points for Extension to get the critter back to the ritual.

Edited July 10, 2022 by svensson

[Akhôrahil]

1 hour ago, svensson said:

[these are generalities... you can easily find outliers]

-- Carnivores are more impressive than herbivores.

-- Live is more impressive than dead

-- Fully capable live prey is more impressive than de-fanged prey

Magical is better than mundane.

[svensson]

4 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Magical is better than mundane.

Also true, especially when you consider that a 'magical' beast may not be susceptible to the Control Beast spell. At that point, you're going 'auld skool' with nets and cages!

[French Desperate WindChild]

The big issue I see with control beast for the great hunt is the « there is no effort » to win ( « just » find your target )

i think , if you want to bring back the beast alive, you must cast the spell or another one (or a very good and specific idea of course) but not only

i would say you are not any more in the mundane world (or if you stay, you will not win) so you may have some challenges, during the search and during the capture. I never run a great hunt but probably after some encounters and difficulties to find the prey, I would manage a fight or something before the hunter can cast the spell.
That would explain why a living prey is better than a dead one: 

some fail to capture the beast and kill it when it is so easy to cast and extend the spell

12 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Magical is better than mundane.

Able to speak and magical is better than magical 😜

[Russ Massey]

10 minutes ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

Able to speak and magical is better than magical 😜

And humans are the most dangerous prey...

[David Scott]

15 hours ago, svensson said:

Let's look at what would be impressive:

I still use the original criteria of highest Treasure Factor (double if live) from Griffin Mountain. While TFs aren't used in RQG, they provide an easy way to measure prey values in the contest:

Quote

A monster gets 1 treasure factor for each of the following:

• Each 5 points of hit points or fraction thereof.
• Each 25% chance to hit, or portion thereof (30% is 2 treasure factors).
• Each extra die of damage done by the monster (+1D4 or +1D6 count as 1).
• Each point of armor protecting the monster’s whole body (3 point skin would be 3 treasure factors).
• Each combat spell possessed by the monster.
• Each special power of the monster (like a Jack O’Bear’s mind control).
• Each 5 levels of poison potency used by the monster (a troll using a level 7 blade venom would have 2 treasure factors).
• Each extra attack the monster has (a Jack O’Bear uses two claws, and thus gains 1 treasure factor).

RuneQuest Classic, page 104

-----

15 hours ago, svensson said:

So bringing in a live sakkar that's under Control Beast effects is more impressive than a grizzly bear pelt. But [and I admit to using an outlier here] bringing in a live aurochs under Control Beast [for which some clans are Heroquesting, trying to bring them back to Sartar and fulfill a prophecy] is even MORE impressive.

• Saber-toothed Cats: 16 or 32
• Grizzly Bear: 11 or 22

And of course once Argrath brings them back to Dragon Pass:

• Aurochs: 15 (based on RQG Sky Bull)

In my game, Saber-tooths don't count as prey, they are predators competing with the hunter. They are not good to eat (but that's a GM call, see much info on eating carnivorous predators), so don't fulfil the prime hunter need to feed people. Second, they are rare, wide ranging and dangerous, sacred to some death cults and a lone hunter with no armour is in great danger of dying (that won't stop a determined group trying to eliminate them, see Cattle Raid in the GM Screen Pack).

15 hours ago, svensson said:

-- Sacrifices enough POW to have Control Beast [whatever] and enough points for Extension to get the critter back to the ritual.

Odayla has no access to Command (species), but does have access to Control (entity) through Daka Fal, however this non-extendable spirit magic lasts for 2 minutes...

[Lordabdul]

On 7/9/2022 at 5:46 AM, David Scott said:

But that is missing the point of the hunter and the hunted. As the hunted he can understand the motivations of the prey. As a lhankor Mhy you have another just another investigator type (Poirot, Holmes, etc) as opposed to criminal turned detective (Red in the Blacklist, etc).

Yes exactly, an Odaylan investigator might be "psychological/emotional" (he puts himself in the place of the hunted to better hunt them), whereas a Lhankor Mhy investigator is probably "brainy/intellectual" (although for that same book I mentioned have that concept for a Sherlock Holmes Babeester Gor who chases difficult to find oathbreakers using her reasoning powers... and her axe... take Robert Downey Jr.'s Holmes and replace martial arts with a big ass axe, basically)

[Kettlehelm]

So I had a proposed character who was a female Odayla-worshipper because her family were hunters on the edge of Apple Lane. Does that mean she needs to initiate into 3 cults to get access to a standard array of Runespells for Odayla (Ernalda, Odayla and Orlanth) or only two (Ernalda and Odayla)/(Vingan[Orlanth] and Odalya)?

Edited July 17, 2022 by Kettlehelm

[Shiningbrow]

1 hour ago, Kettlehelm said:

So I had a proposed character who was a female Odayla-worshipper because her family were hunters on the edge of Apple Lane. Does that mean she needs to initiate into 3 cults to get access to a standard array of Runespells for Odayla (Ernalda, Odayla and Orlanth) or only two (Ernalda and Odayla)/(Vingan[Orlanth] and Odalya)?

Only 1 - Odayla.

You get all common Rune spells from  him.

Anything else would be considered non-standard.

[soltakss]

6 hours ago, Kettlehelm said:

So I had a proposed character who was a female Odayla-worshipper because her family were hunters on the edge of Apple Lane. Does that mean she needs to initiate into 3 cults to get access to a standard array of Runespells for Odayla (Ernalda, Odayla and Orlanth) or only two (Ernalda and Odayla)/(Vingan[Orlanth] and Odalya)?

Just Odayla.

When you initiate into a Cult, you usually get access to the Associate Cult Spells given to your cult. Some restrict access to the spells to certain levels, though.

To get other Orlanth Runemagic, for example, you need to Initiate to Orlanth.

 

[Orlanthatemyhamster]

On 7/4/2022 at 5:34 AM, Darius West said:

But is he a black bear?  

He's not a black sheep that's for sure!