Starting characters and magic

[issariesguy]

Hi All,

I will delurk for a moment to dispense some "official" advice.

So the Hero's Book, and Dragon's Pass, are both Hero Quest books then? Are further Orlanthi gods included in revised form in one or the other, say Kolat and Yinkin perhaps? I'll have to do some research on HQ websites now to see what treasures are out there that I'm missing.

I don't think there's a full-length write-up of Kolat _anywhere_.  There must be some web-resources on same, though -- or so I fondly imagine.  Yinkin has a chapter in _Storm Tribe_, and very funky it is too.  Granted it's technically for HW, but this isn't an area where one'd notice any huge amount of discontuinity.

[/quote]

Alex is correct that there is not a full write-up of Kolat anywhere; the draft was never finished for Storm Tribe, and has not yet been updated to HeroQuest.

Two key points here:

1. The Kolat Tradition is, as someone pointed out, a tradition. So, as a member, you'll get up to 5 charms from it. (And note that if you also have the common magic keyword, you can ALSO have up to 5 common magic charms as well.) The last version of the write-up I have lists the following types of tradition spirits:

Air Spirits, Cold Spirits, Weather Spirits.

2. The primary core practice of the Kolat Tradition is the Seven Winds Practice. It includes six primary types of spirits, generally corresponding to the ones in the Hero Wars write-up. However, three of these are more friendly than the others. Also, these are somewhat specific spirits. The Three Good Friends each have specific abilities they can provide. One has Change Direction in Wind and Make Light in Hands; the next has Cold Temperature and Throw Accurately; the third has Change the Weather and Blast Deity. All of these are likely to change before final publication, for various reasons.

The other three spirits are a water spirit (Absorb an Attacking Spirit, Dowse for Water), a sky spirit (Intercept Attacking Spirit), and an underworld spirit (Resist Magic of the Six Foes, six specific types of spiritual enemies, like undead corpses or curses sent by women).

3. The shamanic practice of the tradition is the Seza Practice (Seza is the name of Kolat's fetch, which takes the form of a great windy bird of prey.) Unusually, the Seza Practice provides two set abilities, with the third "unique" ability actually varying with each individual shaman; some blow hot or cold wind, some howl terribly, and some can hunt specific animals or spirits.

Now, as I said, this is "official" advice -- the material hasn't been looked at closely in a couple of years, was written under an older rules set, and is subject to change, even in the Gloranthan details. But, if you want someplace to start with your Kolating guy, you can feel free to use this.

Cheers,

Stephen

[buserian]

Oh, and when I say that bound spirits are powerful, to be precise, they can be released adding a bonus to an ability equal to their appropriate ability. That's right, if I release my spirit of fierce fighting with a Fight Hard 15 ability, I get to add 15 to my ability level. That's the same as a 5W7 ability augmenting.

!!!

Yeeks, that detail, I missed!  That makes a big difference in my campaign! (and a good one, IMO).  

But keep in mind that once you use the practice spirit in this manner, you do not have it available for any purpose for some vague amount of time, while it makes its way back to the fetish though the Spirit World.

So, the question becomes -- do I use this 15 fetish for a +2 each round of the extended contest, or blow it in a single +15 and I hope I cream my opponent, because I lose the bonus at that point for awhile. Maybe even a day or two -- and who knows how many more troll patrols are out there?

Thus, it is powerful, but also has a built-in limitation.

buserian

[Rich Forest]

Thank you Stephen. That is exactly the kind of direction I needed for the Kolating's spirits. I was still flailing a bit on that before your post. This gives me something very concrete to build on so that I'm ready for tomorrow's game.

Thanks,

Rich

[Simon Bray]

I don't think there's a full-length write-up of Kolat _anywhere_.

There was a short version of Kolat published in Hero Wars and there was one in the early versions of both Storm Tribe and HeroQuest, however due to the numerous debates that went on at the time as to the nature of the religion and Animist magic in general it was dropped. However it wouldn't be too difficult to create a Kolating using the present Animism rules along with the original published cult background.

The Heortling Woodcut for Kolat (unpublished) portrays him as a bearded and naked man with wild hair and glazed eyes. In one hand he holds a short sheperds crook (or Spirit Hook) and in the other he holds a fetish of feathers and leaves.

The main issue is if Kolat is a Tradition, aka The Many Winds Tradition or somthing similar or whether he is simply a stand alone Shamanic Practice, like Ganval. I prefer the latter for simplicity, it allows him to interact with the Orlanth Pantheon more easily and explains why there are so few of them. In HW it states that Kolatings only serve themselves and their kin.

His spirits include Air Spirits, Wind Spirits, Water (Rain) Spirits, Cold Spirits and Weather Spirits. He also has Wind Above and Wind Below Speciality Spirits and can make spirit allies from Weather and Wind Spirits.

According to HW the abilities of Kolat would be.....

Build with Snow, Leaping, Kolat Practice (or Tradition) Knowledge, Mythology of Kolat, Sense Change in Weather, Open Spirit World, Spirit Face.

The Cult Secret is Travel as Wind.  

Kolat's home on the spirit plane is called the Horn Zone, which lies within the Vale of Four Winds. I suspect that Kolat can herd spirits with his Spirit Hook like a sheperd herds his flocks or catch them using the crook(at least mythically). I think this item is a symbol of the cult and is also represented in his fisihing lure like rune.

Based on the imagery I was asked to draw I would imagine that