Apprentice game plans

[Paul Albertella]

Think of it as a "practice heroquest," with the real quest having even greater effects. Not just a ritual, but a whole heroquest.

This is an interesting idea. I thought the the ritual angle worked well because of the ritualistic elements and roles that are present in any formal duel, but extending the concept into the quest form brings it into sharp focus. We have a formal challenge and the option of an apology; the two principles, binding themselves to the terms of the contest; their seconds, who are responsible for agreeing the rules and preparing the weapons, and who may even be called upon to duel themselves if they cannot agree. Provided that a pair of apprentices are sufficiently familiar with the form and can muster the supporters and props required, it does seem reaonable that they could manage a "practice" version without their master running the show. The "full" version would presumably face the standard 10W3 resistance required to reach the Otherworld, but the "practice" version doesn't involve a crossing, so I'm not sure what sort of resistance it would face... 

Actually those rules do exist already. HQ does not duck. It merely doesn't describe the process well. But, simply, making a magic item is a heroquest. Period.

OK, this does make a certain amount of sense. I keep forgetting that this "quest" mechanic can apply to rituals or ceremonies, as well as your actual jaunt into the Otherworld. I initially found it hard to see how this would apply to enchanting non-portable items or physical locations, but it makes perfect sense when you take into account the idea of  "ceremony" and "practice" quests, which explicity take place in the physical world (albeit one that temporarily overlaps with the Otherworld).

Here's another way to approach a great deal of this campaign. Answer the rarely asked question, "What does a wizardry heroquest look like, and what's it for?" Outside of the ones we know about to get spells and such. Keep in mind the difference between getting things from the essence plane, and getting them from the essence landscape in the hero planes.

Yes, the way I've been reading it, "spells and such" do seem to be presented as the only purpose of a wizardry heroquest, which is a little dull. It's not really about the spells and the grimoires, after all - those are just the game mechanics, not the character motivations. It's about knowledge and power: investigating the "mind of God" in order to better undertand the laws that govern the universe - and figure out how to manipulate them.

I know that Greg has been very explicit in his expressed opinion of what the essence planes look like (a "series of enclosed definitions that have links to things outside themselves"), making it clear that they are never a continuous "landscape", but always an array of nodes and interstices. "Humans perceive these planes from inside the nodes" the HQ rules tell us; they can't perceive the planes from outside these intellectual constructs. However, I do take your point about the wizardry equivalent of the 'Hero Planes' or 'Gods War' being a different kettle of fish. And then, of course, we have the Underworld...

These pursuits are, however, perhaps a little too high-powered for our young apprentices, who have a way to go yet before they'll even be able to attune to a grimoire or link a talisman to a spell node. I think that there is plenty of exploration to be done in the mundane manifestations of magic, in imagining the techniques and talents that the apprentices need to develop before they can even cast a simple spell without the aid of their master or some other intermediary. How precisely does a master "reshape the apprentice's essence to be a suitable channel for wizardry"? What is this channeling thing all about anyway? How do they learn how to develop and use their Symbolic Sight? What are the theoretical principles underlying the study of wizardry? What does "Concentrating on Wizardry" mean from the character's perspective? Why is alchemy considered so dangerous? Or sorcery in general so heretical?

Then we'll get onto wizardry heroquests... :-)

[Mike Holmes]

As for resistances for practice quests, well the book gives a general idea. I think that looking at how hard you want to make learning the CM spells would be a good start for figuring out some resistance ratings. But for the quest in question (duelling practice quest), I'd simply set it up depending on how common you want duels to be. That is, how risky do you want it to be for characters to perform such a practice duel? If you want it to be rare, then make the TN high. If you want them to happen a lot, then make it relatively low.

I'd make it a quest with a few stages. First a ritualized practice crossing to the enchanted place (they don't actually cross, but not succeeding at this stage may still make it impossible to proceed, or simply more difficult. Second, oh, I dunno, an enchantment of the "arena." Then an attunement to the magic balls of energy. And then, lastly of course, the actual fight. What I really like about this, is that I think it's kosher to put an actual HQ Challenge in at this point. Basically the characters dueling will put an ability up against each other. So one character is risking his ability to do one of his spells, and the other is risking a magic talisman he has. And the resulting ability gained by the winner might be some sort of magical supremacy over the opponent, perhaps a spell like "Dominate Character X."

Maybe:
Stage 1: Cross to the Arena - 14
Stage 2: Enchant Arena - 17
Stage 3: Attune to Magic Ball - 1W (must be done by each contestant separately?)
Stage 4: Heroquest Challenge with resistance based on opponent's relavant dueling ability.


My point about HQs for wizards is really meant to drive on the sort of things you're getting at for the less experienced apprentices. That is, in thinking about what the advanced HQ's are like, I think you find out about the simple ones as well.

Anyhow, for instance, I think that the "suitable channel" thing probably comes in two steps. First there's the question of using essence magic from the mundane world. Pretty easy this part, really, as almost anyone can learn to use a common magic spell (and apprentices even learn some of the grimoire spells as common magic). So the hard part, here, has to be the second step, which is channeling the magical energy from the essence plane.

For a full Adept, learning a spell is a matter of going on the learning heroquest for it. I'm guessing that the common magic version of these spells works off of some local source of essence, even, perhaps, the characters's own essence - and I'm assuming that these versions are obtained by "practice heroquests." So, as the character learns to use this version of the magic, their essence becomes molded by the practice to eventually being able to channel the otherworld essences in question.

The master (and student if he has Symbolic Sight already), can see the student's essence, and can instruct the student on how to shape his own essence. Or, alternatively, he could simply manipulate it directly as he would any other common magic essence. Not quite like taking essence (per the rules in the "essential landscape" section), but using the same sort of facility with it to shape it within the subject. Making it move from the crude form that can handle the Common Magic form, to the refined form needed to actually bring the essence across from the Essence Plane, once the character is attuned to the source.

Very much I'd think that basically without this sort of essence tuning, a character probably can't attune to the otherworld source of essence. And I think that by "channeling," that what's meant is precisely the charcter's essence being the conduit to the actual transference. The caster's essence "melts" into the source on the otherworld end, and the energy comes out through their talisman in the mundane world, that being the other end of the conduit.


Keep in mind that a "ritual" or "ceremony" is actually simply something done to make a magic ability or magic related ability work better. There are no rituals that one does all by themselves. They either serve to make a spell (or feat, or fetish or whathaveyou) work better, or to make a stage of a HQ more easy to accomplish. The weekly liturgist ritual is to enable the little opening up of the otherworld so that veneration can occur, for instance. There's no doubt a ton of ritual involved in the crossings to the founder's node for attunement (starting with doing it from inside the school's "Magic Room.")

BTW, this is where you get to have all sorts of fun with the arcane trappings. Sure a character can cast his Memorize Text spell on the fly, but I'm sure with the right incense (and other herbal help), taking an hour to do the esoteric chant of the Morblungat, having several other adepts working with him doing the chant as well and continuing while he reads (for community support), doing it when the planets of memory are aligned and in the School's "Chamber of Memory," that much more difficult texts can be more thoroughly memorized.

Mike