The below method for classifying knowledge regarding a Trickster shrine is imprecise and crude. Still, it provides one way to measure what is known about a given shrine.
Knowledge regarding the existance of a Trickster shrine can be indicated on a 6-point alphabetical scale:
Knowledge regarding the location of a Trickster shrine can be indicated on a 6-point numerical scale:
Duck Point - Dead Man's Shrine (E2):
[Go to Imp
Aspect page]
This trickster shrine usually appears within a week to Eurmal initiates in or
near Duck Point (and only when there are no ducks around to see it). The shrine
appears as a dead (almost always human) body, which the Eurmali will somehow
immediately recognize as being the corpse of a fellow trickster initiate. The
initiate will have to make a POW roll to keep from going towards the body and
touching it. (The corpse itself can easily be looted, buried, or whatever.) If
he does touch it, the initiate will immediately discover he knows the spirit
spell Hiccup. He will also discover later that every duck who sees him
starts hiccupping uncontrollably. The trickster is usually helpless with
laughter when he is finally lynched by the hiccupping duck mob (who are always
furious with indignation and pain). His body will later reappear to the next
fool to enter Duck Point, as the new Dead Man shrine. (The mob will also usually
try to lynch anybody else who is laughing too, which is pretty hard for a human
not to do when listening to 20-40 hiccupping ducks!) If the trickster does
manage to escape, the last Eurmali body will continue to appear as the shrine.
Most of the time leaving the Duck Point area is enough to remove the curse (which
can be seen as the cost for learning the spell instantly, or just the cost of
being a trickster), but not always.
Greydog Village - Hare Woods (D3):
[Go to Imp
Aspect page]
The Hare Woods run along the Starfire Ridges down to the Goodale Path in Big Elm
Valley, north-east of Greydog Village. Hare spirit shares a special connection
with the Greydog clan, who regularly appease him. Snorri Hodirson performed the
first friendship ritual with Hare, and it is his descendants who now live in the
woods up on the Starfire Ridges. Every Fire Season this spirit visits Greydog
Village, where he plays a ritual riddling game to reaffirm his connection with
the Greydog clan. Hare does not physically manifest when visiting Greydog
Village; instead, he possesses the clan trickster and speaks through him.
All the locals know the Hare Woods is home to this spirit, whom they also call
Greyhare or Old Hare. Greydog clansfolk all observe certain rituals to honor and
appease him. These include always burying the hind foot (people argue over
whether the right or the left is "best") of any hare killed or found dead, and
not hunting or snaring hares in Hare Woods (except during the winter weeks when
Voriof's Star rises above Lawspeaker Hill.)
Everybody knows the Hare Woods are a strange place, where cattle and people often
get lost. Only tricksters (and HeroQuesters) have seen Hare, but many who have
been lost in Hare Woods have heard rustling in the underbrush, seen twinkling
eyes watching them from the shadows, or heard a soft sniggering as
they tried to find their way home. A few people have caught a glimpse of his
white tail. From this glimpse he is usually estimated as being the size of a
large dog, but nobody knows for sure.
A secret known only to the Hodirson household is how to (quickly) find their way
out of Hare Woods if they get lost there. They know that Hare will not bother
anyone who has taken off all their cloths and put them all back on inside out.
Whenever Hare finds a trickster lost in his woods, he will appear to him and
challenge him to a riddle contest. When appearing to a trickster he can be
anywhere from mouse-sized to house-sized. If the trickster wins, Hare will teach
him the spirit spell Get Lost. (But the trickster will still have to find
his own way out of the woods!) If Hare wins, the trickster will be given a geas.
The nature of the geas varies, but could included such things as "Never Eat Hare
Or Rabbit," "Never Cut Your Hair Or Shave," "Never Let A Hare Or Rabbit Suffer
Needlessly," "Eat A Root Vegetable Every Day," "Have Sex At Least Once Every
Fertility Week," "Never Flee From Or Surrender To Any Duck," and "Always Hop
Using Both Feet When On A Paved Road." Breaking this geas hardly ever results in
death. Most often, breaking a Hare geas results in the transformation of some
part or all of the trickster's anatomy from human to hare-like. This
transformation can range from relatively minor (such as gaining buck-teeth or a
hare tail, or all body hair turning grey) to major (gaining hare ears, a hare's
foot, a hare nose with wiskers, or being covered with grey fur) to total and
complete.
The current (1621) trickster of the Greydog clan is Brigpice Badstink. He
originally came from the Òno-goodÓ Gorin household, but even they have now
disowned him. Brigpice earned this moniker five years ago, after refusing to
participate with the rest of the clan in the cleansing ritual on Voria's Day.
Since then he has refused to wash, and most people believe (correctly) that he
has gained a geas against bathing. However, he does make some attempts to stay
clean. In the spring and summer he will often be found walking in the rain or
wading through one of the local creeks or streams. In the fall and winter he
will sometimes undress himself, smear fat all over his body, and let the clan
dogs lick him clean. (He learned this last trick when someone he had offended
did just that while Brigpice was passed out drunk, in an unsuccessful attempt to
break his geas. Having himself be licked clean is also the task he will set for
another Eurmali who wants to meet Hare.) Another strange thing about Brigpice is
that for the past year he has always worn some sort of cap or hat, never
uncovering his head. Half-hearted attempts to snatch his cap off have shown he is
willing to use magic [a Glue spell] to keep his head covered. Most people assume
(incorrectly) that he has simply gained another geas.
If Brigpice's cap is ever taken off by force, or he is caught without his head
covered, it will be quickly apparent why he was wearing the cap: he has two large
hare ears instead of human ears. This condition is the result of his coming
across a strange woman bathing in a small pond in Hare Woods. (She was
performing part of a Hero-Husband Quest ritual, which involved going to a
dangerous place "where only the brave or foolish would go" to meet and seduce a
man. Unfortunately for herself and Brigpice, she neglected to seriously consider
the "fool" part! Brigpice joined her in the pool, she lathered him up, one thing
led to another, and both she and Brigpice took off screaming when she discovered
his new ears. To this day Brigpice has no idea who she was or where she was from,
but he's afraid that someday he may find out.)
This spirit is from David Hall's Sartar house campaign.
Jon Quaife wrote a HeroQuest involving Hare, which can be found in Tales of
the Reaching Moon #7.
Old Wind - Secret of the Inner Wind, Eurmal
Thunderous (E5):
[Go to Imp
Aspect page]
The Eurmal area of the open-air temple at Old Wind is eternally littered with
debris (bits of colored gravel, broken shells, crushed clay and glass beads,
small pieces of twisted metal, etc.) The exact area slowly "grows" and "shrinks"
with time, but is usually about 5 meters square. Since 1620 the area has also
contained a 10 centimeter deep hole in the shape of a man, where Thalimos the
Sage died. Thalimos had a theory that this Eurmali shrine was a place where tiny
bits of broken things from the Godtime were working their way to the surface of
the earth (sort of a miniature inverted version of Skyfall Lake.) He was
collecting some of the detritus one day when he suddenly farted a fearsome blast
and was blown high enough into the air to leave an imprint when he returned to
earth. (He certainly made a lasting impression!)
This shrine usually provides a Fart spell that corresponds with the season:
Fart Melodious during Sea Season, Fart Flame during Fire Season,
Fart Malodorous during Earth Season, Fart Mistralous during Storm
Season, Fart Monstrous during Dark Season, and Asslight during
Sacred Season.
While he was the "priest" of the Secret Wind shrine (1617-1619), Chipmunk Bing is
known to have had other Eurmali publically tongue his "binghole," a ritual which
somehow transferred knowledge of the seasonal Fart spell to the other Eurmali
without requiring spirit combat.
Putt, the "priest" who has tended the shrine since Chipmunk Bing left (in 1619),
teaches the spell by having the other Eurmali eat a small cauldron of his
Blowhard Bean Soup. Although all include beans, the exact recipe for the soup
varies with each season, with each containing items that are usually considered
inedible and/or undesirable to eat. The Sea Season recipe contains fresh greens
and herbs, along with other new plant (buds, stems, leaves, etc.) and animal
(insect larvae, whole baby birds, etc.) growth. The Fire Season soup requires
horsemeat and rare hot peppers and spices. Vegetables and snake meat, along with
worms and mud, clay, sand, and dirt, go into the Earth Season soup. The Storm
Season soup has rainwater and a variety of animals and animal products in it,
including leather and bone. Served cold, the Dark Season recipe includes insects,
pebbles, and ice. The Sacred Season soup is the most infrequently made, requiring
such ingredients as dragonewt meat, eagle feathers, and gold. Depending on the
exact ingredients, eating the soup may require a successful Geek
skill roll. While attempting to digest the soup the trickster has the
opportunity to engage in spirit combat with and learn the appropriate Fart spell
from the Spirit of the Bean (which has been affected by the other ingredients in
the soup.) Failure in this spirit combat results in covert posession by the
Spirit, which manifests by the trickster behaving like Mr. Bean.
Upland Marsh - Weasel's Rock (F6):
[Go
to Dismembered Aspect page]
Weasel's shrine is a large rock on the northern edge of the Upland Marsh. A
spirit summoning ritual is used to contact him; known foci of power include a
bloody duck feather or a piece of duck egg shell.
Weasel is well known among humans and trolls who regularly seek to kill ducks.
Among such people (mostly warriors, not professional hunters) he is recognized as
a spirit who can be helpful, but who can also be dangerous. His most regular
worshippers are an annual troll raiding party from Skyfall Lake. The "Bill
Collectors" specialize in providing duck meat and eggs for the Kyger Litor
priestesses to eat and the Argan Argar merchants to sell.
Weasel teaches such hunters the Spirit Magic spells Silence and Detect
Duck. He will teach one point of a spell per duck or duck egg offerred. As
hunters rarely have their prey before the hunt begins, he is willing to teach his
spells to hunters anyway providing they agree to pay him later and leave him some
collateral. The only item Weasel will accept as collateral is the hunter's
penis. (Female hunters are SOL for this "special offer.") They do this by
placing their member into a crack in Weasel's rock, and when they turn away they
are missing their penis. Weasel will return it (by a reverse process) only when
the hunter has returned with one duck or duck egg per spell point learned. On a
very rare occasion Weasel will make a mistake and return the wrong penis to a
duck hunter. This might not be too bad if you're a human who ends up with a
troll penis ("Jhon Blackfinger!"), but if you're a troll with a human penis...
Some hunters (usually tricksters) have been successful in learning the hunting
magic for free by fooling Weasel with a fake penis. Duck-hunting Weasel
worshippers are NOT considered Trickster initiates, and may not automatically
sacrifice for magic at any other Trickster shrine.
Eurmali who worship Weasel may also sacrifice for the Divine Magic spell
Remove Penis on a reuseable basis. (Note that this spell allows the
caster to remove his own penis, and does not duplicate the power Weasel has to
remove the penis of others.) To learn the divine spell the trickster must bring
Weasel a pretty young female of the initiate's race (between 14 and 22 years old,
at least APP 15) for Weasel to have sex with. The woman does not need to be a
willing participant. Weasel has been known to occasionally get confused (or
maybe just hungry enough) and treat the woman as if she were a duck.
When initially summoned Weasel usually appears as a normal sized (if somewhat
Disneyesque) weasel. If offered a duck/duckling/duck egg, or a woman, he will
transform into a giant slavering crazed weasel who immediately jumps on his
victim.
From here you can go to Jester's Bauble, to my Glorantha page, or to Fool's Paradise.
Last Updated: 19 December 1997
URL: http://members.aol.com/pmichaels/glorantha/tshrines/sartar.html
Glorantha ® is a trademark of Chaosium, Inc. Gloranthan publications are copyright © 1997 or the year of publication by the individual authors and by Greg Stafford. Glorantha is the creation of Greg Stafford, and is used with his permission. RuneQuest ® is a registered trademark of the Avalon Hill Co., a division of Monarch Avalon, Inc. No challenge of these or any other trademarks or copyrights is intended, implied, or inferred by this or any other pages by this writer.