Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 15 May 2002 to 16 May 2002 (#2002-133) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 17/05/2002, 17:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 11 messages totalling 422 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Malachie du Marais (8) 2. Rif: Re: [MYSTARA] Atrouble of Church 3. Hobgoblin Adventure (was Light vs Dark) 4. Highforge Gnomes IMC ******************************************************************** 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: Thu, 16 May 2002 09:11:30 +0200 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Re: Malachie du Marais David Knott wrote: > > Throw in the fact that several of Prince Etienne's > relatives are werewolves, and you have a likely scenario for brining > him to New Averoigne. Maybe, but IIRC they became werewolves only after the return to Mystara. > However, there is clearly something quite peculiar about the aging > of the d'Ambreville family themselves that cannot be accounted for > by Etienne's magic or by the transfer from Laterre to Mystara. The > key person in this mystery is Etienne's mother's sister, Marie-Helene. If it was a matter of genetics, then why would Marie-Helene's aging have stopped at around 40 while that of her sister progressed well over that age? Camille's apparent age might be between 60 and 80, and she is quite senile. BTW, the fact that Marie-Helene and her husband aren't wizards doesn't mean that they could not have been affected by some kind of age-altering magic. Given the set of known facts, it seems that the Ambervilles aging has been suddenly stopped at some point, well before the disappearance, and possibly even before their withdrawal from Laterre. I've reported here some data derived from Daniel Boese's article on Laterre (http://dnd.starflung.com/laterre.html) Name Age at 728 AC Apparent age (at X2 time) Marie-Helene 66 40 Camille 63 60-80 Richard 44 40-50? Charles 38 40-50? Simon 29 40-50? Magdalene 21 30-40? Gaston 3 30? Guillaume 1 30? We can see that Marie-Helene's aging has clearly been stopped way before the Amberville came to Mystara (and therefore before she was wounded in battle)--otherwise, it would have been difficult for her to have two children at age 60+. Note that she married at 27, but she only had her children much later. However, Camille's aging did not stop, tough it was probably slowed somewhat, since she gave birth to Henri in 710 AC, that is at 45. Now, let's have a look at Etienne's siblings. They all seem to have stopped aging at around 40 or 50 years. So, the real mystery is not why Marie-Helene's age was preserved at around 40, but why did Camille age up to 60 (at the very least), since she seems to be the only exception! -- Giampaolo Agosta agathokles@libero.it agosta@elet.polimi.it http://digilander.iol.it/agathokles ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 13:25:20 CEST From: la Volpe Subject: Rif: Re: [MYSTARA] Atrouble of Church A bit late on this topic, but you could check the Thyatian Religion files at the Empire of Thyatis webpage (I know, I know, but it could be useful) http://www.geocities.com/talerio Greetings, Iulius Sergius Scaevola Captain of the XXth Cohort Port Lucinius, Thyatis ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 06:58:11 -0700 From: Andrew Theisen Subject: Re: Malachie du Marais At 08:08 AM 5/15/02 +0200, Giampaolo Agosta wrote: > > 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. That's true. > 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). Actually, a scene from Etienne's past (on p. 35) mentions that he broke off their engagement because he knows he will one day come into conflict with the rulers of Averoigne, and he doesn't want her to get hurt. >> 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! Well, not Immortals per se- just longer lived humans. > 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. Yeah- maybe there's some sort of ceremony that happens when one is "adopted" (by whatever means) into the family? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 06:59:17 -0700 From: Andrew Theisen Subject: Re: Malachie du Marais At 05:33 PM 5/15/02 +1000, "Alfred O'Meagher" wrote: > Maybe the people from Averoigne are touched with the blood of something > inhuman that confers "long years" on them -- that would fit the mythos > flavour of the averoigne tales. Not to mention the original X2: Castle Amber module. In the intro to that module, it mentions that the d'Ambrevilles trafficked with dark magicks and unspeakable beings. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 16:10:56 +0200 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Re: Malachie du Marais Andrew Theisen wrote: > > Actually, a scene from Etienne's past (on p. 35) mentions that he broke off > their engagement because he knows he will one day come into conflict with > the rulers of Averoigne, and he doesn't want her to get hurt. Ok. >> I don't think so. First, if it was all Averoignans, it would be very >> conspicuous: an entire nation of Immortals! > > Well, not Immortals per se- just longer lived humans. Still quite conspicuous, by human standards :) >> 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. > > Yeah- maybe there's some sort of ceremony that happens when one is > "adopted" (by whatever means) into the family? Ok, but then it isn't a genetics thing anymore. -- Giampaolo Agosta agathokles@libero.it agosta@elet.polimi.it http://digilander.iol.it/agathokles ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 04:38:11 +1000 From: Alfred O'Meagher Subject: Re: Malachie du Marais Yeah I bought the complete Averoigne set plus new illustrations etc. from a friend's website - mother of toads, colossus of ylourgne etc. all have the same "edge of the Cthulhu Mythos looking in" feeling... you can believe that the "elite" of the Old Earth regions were implicitly not quite human. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 04:39:11 +1000 From: Alfred O'Meagher Subject: Re: Malachie du Marais > > Yeah- maybe there's some sort of ceremony that happens when one is > > "adopted" (by whatever means) into the family? > > Ok, but then it isn't a genetics thing anymore. > -- > Giampaolo Agosta Well it could be - the genetic potential only being activated in the ceremony or whatever. Prior to this the gene(s) are switched off. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 05:21:05 +1000 From: Alfred O'Meagher Subject: Re: Malachie du Marais > Yeah I bought the complete Averoigne set plus new illustrations etc. from a > friend's website - mother of toads, colossus of ylourgne etc. all have the THat should have been the complete set on CD-ROM. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 12:37:07 -0700 From: Joaquin Menchaca Subject: Re: Hobgoblin Adventure (was Light vs Dark) > I like your hobgoblin adventure idea -- though you could use just > about any "typically distrusted humanoid" for the community. Thanks. There's a lot of roleplaying involved. And overall has many moral dilemmas. > In fact, oh wait ... let me put in spoiler space for the guys in my > campaign. > . > . > The Champions of Mystara boxed set contains a whole section on > Grakhalia, which is a community that is found beneath the > surface of the > "planes of fire". The community consists of standard Elves > (vs. Shadow > Elves) and Gnolls. It's a neat concept, and I hope to drag my players > through there some day. :-) This would be a different story as society accepts gnolls. It would be fascinating though to have the players encounter gnolls, and assume they are bad, and then if they "murder" some gnolls, they could be tried for "murder" by elves and hunted by elves. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 13:03:48 -0700 From: Joaquin Menchaca Subject: Re: Highforge Gnomes IMC Actually I wanted to put together some cool maps using Illustrator, and send them out as GIFs. I wanted to have a Gazetteer for underworld gnomes and one for the dwarves and include the depths like some maps have for mountians and lines describing the height. > -----Original Message----- > From: Mystara RPG Discussion [mailto:MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM]On > Behalf Of Jenni A. M. Merrifield > Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2002 10:19 PM > To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM > Subject: Re: [MYSTARA] Highforge Gnomes IMC > > > Very cool. I had exactly the same general idea about the gnomes of > highforge, which I started ruminating on when I started up my 3E > campaign. I was trying to figure out how to explain the "sudden > appearance" of more gnomes at the time of the campaign, which is > officially set in 1005 AC (though I have no plans to run WotI). My > thoughts were that this was how things have been for a very long time, > but something recently caused the gnomes to become less xenophobic and > many individual gnomes start moving around on the surface of the Known > World. There's enough of them, that everyone else has noticed that > there are "more gnomes about all the time these days" but > they're still > by far and away the smallest minority almost everywhere. > > I haven't really done anything more with the idea though, since my > campaign is basically centred on Darokin, Minrothad, Ierendi and the > Five Shires. It would be interesting to develop it further though, > almost like a mini-gazeteer showing where the Highforge Gnomes > underground cities are, where their underground "connections" with the > realm of the Shadow Elves, the Dwarves of Rockhome, etc. are. > > Jenni > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Mystara RPG Discussion > [mailto:MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM] On > > Behalf Of macnerd > > Sent: Monday, April 29, 2002 12:27 PM > > To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM > > Subject: [MYSTARA] Highforge Gnomes IMC > > > > I think the gnomes only reveal to the world that they live in this > > town/city > > of Highforge, which they closely guard and dispose of any > trespassers. > > IMC, > > the reason for this is that their city is linked to many cities > > underground > > is a huge underground kingdom. This is a closely guarded secret. > There > > is > > a secret unknown enemy, which caused the fall of their > civilization in > the > > Soderfjords Jarldom region. > > > > Additionally, there is a annual trading with one of the gnomish sky > > cities. > > After this event, they go on the great Annual Gnomish Caravan where > they > > trade with locals in Karameikos. Many merchants from > around the globe > > travel to Karameikos to trade with the gnomes. During this caravan, > the > > gnomes hold a contest to see who can make the most wondrous > invention. > > This > > is judges are the elders of Highforge, and spectators are welcomed, > though > > their safety is not guaranteed if something goes awry. > > > > The gnomes know of the dwarvish communities, humanoid > communities, and > > also > > the Shadow Elf communities, and they have other reclusive > places where > > they > > live, such as the one way up north in EarthShaker module. > > > > Perhaps some Highforge gnomes can hire the PCs to go up North to spy > and > > get > > schematics of the device... :-) > > > > - Joaquin > > > > ******************************************************************** > > 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. > > ******************************************************************** > 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: Thu, 16 May 2002 13:17:56 -0700 From: Chris Furneaux Subject: Re: Malachie du Marais > Not to mention the original X2: Castle Amber module. > In the intro to that > module, it mentions that the d'Ambrevilles > trafficked with dark magicks and > unspeakable beings. Well it's not a big jump to call the Radiance a form of "dark magic" While not neccecarally evil it is quite different from normal magic, and by draining normal magic can easily be seen as dark. As for the unspeakable beings, well ther could be any number of things. In Glanti I assume that immortals are concidered in some ways "unspeakable" given the no priests rule. Just a passing idea. Chris. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? LAUNCH - Your Yahoo! Music Experience http://launch.yahoo.com ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 15 May 2002 to 16 May 2002 (#2002-133) ****************************************************************