Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 13 May 2002 to 14 May 2002 (#2002-131) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 15/05/2002, 17:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 7 messages totalling 351 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Malachie du Marais (6) 2. Missing Magazine ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.dnd.starflung.com/ To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 12:19:01 +0200 From: "Munther, Sven" Subject: Re: Malachie du Marais I wrote: > > In X2 he resides in Old Averoigne and is _very_ likely to be killed = by the > > player characters. Agathokles wrote > They were resurrected by =C9tienne d'Amberville when he got back and > restored his principality, as he needed some loyal (and magic-endowed) > followers. You might be right, but I do not see why he should resurrect Malachie = du Marais who is not a part of the d'Amberville household and not an emigrant to Mystara. The way I see it might be best if my player does not kill of Malachie = during X2 but rather helps him escape to Mystara. Opinions? I wrote: >> One more question: Why are all the d'Ambervilles and other people = from Old >> Averoigne (including Malachie) >> not aging. Is it wish-spells and potions of longlivety or is it a = race >> thing? > They're all humans, except for the "occasional" werewolf. However, the > =C9tienne's curse kept them at their age during the disappearance of = the > Castle. After his return, he has got more than enough magical power to > keep them at whatever age he wants. I think this is a wrong answer. The lived for centuries in Glantri = after the emigration from Old Averoigne and prior to the disappearance. If = this is wish-spells and longlivety it is a little beyond what I thought=20 possible by those means. Sven ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 00:56:05 +1000 From: Alfred O'Meagher Subject: Re: Malachie du Marais "I think this is a wrong answer. The lived for centuries in Glantri after the emigration from Old Averoigne and prior to the disappearance. If this is wish-spells and longlivety it is a little beyond what I thought possible by those means." Sven I agree. Perhaps they age at a different rate to Mystarans, a bit like comicbook characters age? Maybe they age 1 year for every few M-years that passes, or a year per decade or 25 years or something? And like elves only true breeding descendants of them have the same age "power"? Or maybe Nouvelle Averoigne is like a fey realm or a magic mini-plane where people only age when they remember to, so they stay the same age relative to each other. The Clark Ashton Smith stuff in Mystara needs to be made separate somehow anyway, to emphasize the good bits of it, otherwise too much numbercrunching spoils the gothic flavour. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 10:24:23 -0700 From: Andrew Theisen Subject: Re: Malachie du Marais At 12:56 AM 5/15/02 +1000, you wrote: > > I agree. Perhaps they age at a different rate to Mystarans, a bit like > comicbook characters age? Maybe they age 1 year for every few M-years that > passes, or a year per decade or 25 years or something? And like elves only > true breeding descendants of them have the same age "power"? I find that giving Amberites the lifespans of dwarves pretty effectively solves the problem, with the tradeoff seems to be that they aren't terribly prolific in siring children (as suggested by the fact that there seem to be so few of them). > Or maybe Nouvelle Averoigne is like a fey realm or a magic mini-plane where people > only age when they remember to, so they stay the same age relative to each > other. That's an interesting idea... it could certainly tie into the whole "Castle Amber disappearing into the grey mists" plot of X2, for that matter. > The Clark Ashton Smith stuff in Mystara needs to be made separate somehow > anyway, to emphasize the good bits of it, otherwise too much numbercrunching > spoils the gothic flavour. FWIW, my Amberites tend to be quite different from the Gaz3 (and later) versions of same- sort of a combination of the CAS works (gothic, dark powers and their servitors) and Roger Zelazny's Amber Chronicles (with appropriate substitutes for the major characters). For those who might be interested, here is a rough correspondence of Amber characters to d'Ambrevilles: Corwin = Etienne Brand = Henri Eric = Richard Random = Claude Julian = Andre-David Gerard = Jean-Louis Caine = Charles Bleys = Simon Delwin = Gaston Dalt = Guillaume Flora = Isabelle Deirdre = Magdalene Dara = Catharine Llewella = Janette Fiona = Isidore Once I've finished up some of my other projects, I'll have to post my versions of these characters, and their twisted histories together... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 20:33:18 +0000 From: Agathokles Subject: Re: Malachie du Marais "Munther, Sven" wrote: > > You might be right, but I do not see why he should resurrect Malachie du > Marais > who is not a part of the d'Amberville household and not an emigrant to > Mystara. To use him to balance the political influence of Sephora? > The way I see it might be best if my player does not kill of Malachie during > X2 but rather helps him escape to Mystara. Opinions? If this happens, than all the better. However, it is not unlikely that the players manage to kill him. > I think this is a wrong answer. The lived for centuries in Glantri after > the emigration from Old Averoigne and prior to the disappearance. If this > is wish-spells and longlivety it is a little beyond what I thought > possible by those means. According to the timeline I have, they arrive in 728 AC, and disappear in 896. It is a very long time, indeed, (more than 150 years) but not beyond the means of mortal magics--which may be different from wishes or potions of longevity, as the Aendyrs, for example, are said to use different methods. However, note that Étienne's mother has been aging, though slowly. As someone said, the slowed aging might have been a side effect of the move from Laterre, but I'd not consider this a good reason, since other Laterrans seem to age normally (actually, only the d'Ambreville show this near-immortality). I'd still consider it the result of some kind of powerful magic cast over human subjects. -- Giampaolo Agosta agathokles@libero.it agosta@elet.polimi.it http://digilander.iol.it/agathokles ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 18:44:11 -0700 From: Andrew Theisen Subject: Re: Malachie du Marais At 08:33 PM 5/14/02 +0000, Agathokles wrote: > "Munther, Sven" wrote: >> >> You might be right, but I do not see why he should resurrect Malachie du >> Marais >> who is not a part of the d'Amberville household and not an emigrant to >> Mystara. > > To use him to balance the political influence of Sephora? I don't see it, myself. If he wants to balance out her political influence, then why bring her across in the first place? For that matter, she was (according to Mark of Amber) his former lover, and someone he seemingly still bears a degree of affection for, so why bring over her most vile nemesis when he could simply leave him behind? > However, note that =C9tienne's mother has been aging, though slowly. As > someone said, the slowed aging might have been a side effect of the move > from Laterre, but I'd not consider this a good reason, since other > Laterrans seem to age normally (actually, only the d'Ambreville show > this near-immortality). Gilles Grenier and Sephora seem to age about the same as the d'Ambrevilles (not to mention Diane de Malinbois, but she has access to time travel potions). The Klantyres don't, so maybe it's something unique to= Averoignians? I don't think that's the case, myself, fwiw. I'd say that the d'Ambrevilles (for whatever reason) seem to be very long-lived, and that when Etienne resurrected them (as someone else suggested) he might have "reset the clock" so to speak on them, so that since their return they've been rejuvenated somewhat from how they were before they left in 896 AC. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 22:29:54 -0700 From: Kar Ess Subject: Re: Missing Magazine Dungeon #36, starting on page 8 Asflag's Unintentional Emporium Monster was a guardian familiar --- Wizards Shopper wrote: > I have a question that is not exactly Mystara related, but it is a part > of my > Mystara campaign. I ran an adventure many years ago which was a module > from > some magazine. I placed the module on an island off the coast of > eastern > Davania. In the adventure the PCs travel to a tower owned by a recently > deceased mage. His magical creations have run amuck and the PCs are > brought > in to clear out the tower. The final "bad guy" in the module is a > unique > feline monster. When the PCs kill the monster, it comes back to life > except > it is tougher. It keeps doing this until it is killed 9 times. It's a > play > on cats having 9 lives. > > My problem is that the PCs are now planning to transport to the tower > and I > can no longer find the magazine/module. I could always prevent them > from > getting there, but I'd rather not do that. I bought the Dragon Magazine > CD > Rom and I was unable to find it by searching through the issues. So I > now > believe it was in an issue of Dungeon or Polyhedron Magazine. It would > be in > an issue that came out prior to 1997. > > I'd really appreciate it if anyone could tell me which magazine this may > be > from. > > Thanks for your help! > > --- -- --Rich > > ******************************************************************** > The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp > The Mystara Homepage: http://www.dnd.starflung.com/ > To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM > with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? LAUNCH - Your Yahoo! Music Experience http://launch.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 08:08:32 +0200 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Re: Malachie du Marais Andrew Theisen wrote: > > I don't see it, myself. If he wants to balance out her political influence, > then why bring her across in the first place? Did you notice that he has no other followers but those he brought from Averoigne? Since there aren't many wizards there, he simply did not have much choice, IMO. > For that matter, she was > (according to Mark of Amber) his former lover, and someone he seemingly > still bears a degree of affection for, so why bring over her most vile > nemesis when he could simply leave him behind? Mark of Amber doesn't say when they became lovers. I'd assume it happened _after_ Etienne got back. By the way, why should Etienne bring in people he likely doesn't even know, like Grenier (a minor hedge wizard,at the time of X2). >> Laterrans seem to age normally (actually, only the d'Ambreville show >> this near-immortality). > > Gilles Grenier and Sephora seem to age about the same as the d'Ambrevilles > (not to mention Diane de Malinbois, but she has access to time travel > potions). The Klantyres don't, so maybe it's something unique to Averoignians? I don't think so. First, if it was all Averoignans, it would be very conspicuous: an entire nation of Immortals! Second, it isn't only the Amberville, so it would be a selection of specific Averoignans, without special connections, except that they are now vassals/relatives of the Ambervilles. BTW, Grenier only appeared on Mystara after the return of Etienne, which means Etienne might have stopped his aging when he became Immortal. > I don't think that's the case, myself, fwiw. I'd say that the d'Ambrevilles > (for whatever reason) seem to be very long-lived, and that when Etienne > resurrected them (as someone else suggested) he might have "reset the > clock" so to speak on them, so that since their return they've been > rejuvenated somewhat from how they were before they left in 896 AC. Myself, I think that in Laterra, while other magics might not be that powerful/common, time-related magic is better studied/understood by the local wizards (see time-travel potions, not available in Mystara). The Ambrevilles, and certainly also Sephora and Moriamis, used this kind of magic (Malachie might be a different case, OTOH). -- Giampaolo Agosta agathokles@libero.it agosta@elet.polimi.it http://digilander.iol.it/agathokles ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 13 May 2002 to 14 May 2002 (#2002-131) ****************************************************************