Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 7 Feb 2002 to 8 Feb 2002 (#2002-39) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 09/02/2002, 19:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 6 messages totalling 256 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Return to the Assault on Glantri (2) 2. How do you pronounce "geas"?? (4) ******************************************************************** 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: Fri, 8 Feb 2002 01:04:54 -0800 From: Herve Musseau Subject: Re: Return to the Assault on Glantri From: The Stalker > My humble suggestions for solutions (what I did IMC): > > A. There is only one Week Without Magic. It occurred just after the > Destruction of Sundsvall, long before the Assault on Glantri. When magic > failed during the Assault on Glantri, it failed only for a day, as per the > subsequent annual Day of Dread. In fact, it might be argued that this was > the first Day of Dread (unless the DM already had that established in his > campaign, of course, only I didn't in mine). > > B. Eriadna was killed only indirectly by the Week Without Magic. Instead of > being magically aged, she was crushed under tons of marble when the > imperial palace collapsed over her head. With no magic to protect her, she > was doomed. Eriadna will be just as dead, but this solves the problem of > why Terari and others didn't then die as well. If you have B, then why do you place the WWM during the destruction of Sundsvall? Okay, you need magic to be down so that Eriadna is unprotected and dies, and no magic adds to the outrage of the wizards of Alphatia (there is already the destruction of Sundvsall and the death of the empress and many of the wizards in Sunsvdall, but they will take a stop of magic much more personally) so that Zandor will order the assault on Glantri, but for that a mere DoD seems to be sufficient. Then, when the NoS is tampered with, it drains magic even more, skyrocketing from the 1 day/yr it has just acquired to 1 week/yr of no magic, and the WWM starts (while Alphatia sinks, the Red Sun goes down, etc). Shortly after the WWM has started Rad is absorbed into the NoS, though, replenishing magic in the world, so that although the WWM takes place the rad level has dropped so that only a DoD will occur every year; also, the surge in magic allows Immortal spells to work again, so that Palatarkan can save the Floating Islands which were plummeting into the ocean after Alphatia, and Ixion (after one day--he is still recovering from the experience with Rad and the Old One and stuff) recreates the gate restores the Red Sun (and then the Council of HW can recreate the SoP, Alphatian Immortals can recreate the just sunken Alphatia in the HW, ...). ===== ___________________________________________________________ Herve Musseau http://www.geocities.com/hmusseau/ __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE Valentine eCards with Yahoo! Greetings! http://greetings.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2002 16:01:22 -0800 From: The Stalker Subject: Re: Return to the Assault on Glantri On Fri, 8 Feb 2002 01:04:54 -0800, Herve Musseau wrote: > From: The Stalker (snip) > >> B. Eriadna was killed only indirectly by the Week Without Magic. Instead of >> being magically aged, she was crushed under tons of marble when the >> imperial palace collapsed over her head. With no magic to protect her, she >> was doomed. Eriadna will be just as dead, but this solves the problem of >> why Terari and others didn't then die as well. > > If you have B, then why do you place the WWM during the destruction of > Sundsvall? Well, one reason is canon. Page 89 of WOTI's "Immortal Fury" book states that the WWM occurs before the Thousand Wizards convene and the Assault on Glantri occurs. Of course, it doesn't exactly fit well with what it say in the "Wrap-up" section on p.70 after Phase III, but note that it says specifically there that Immortal magic is not affected by this WWM. Since we need Immortal magic to fail during the WWM to establish the darkening of the Hollow World sun, it seems to me that placing the WWM earlier causes the least trouble, since WOTI doesn't really descibe what happens after the Phase III adventure. > Okay, you need magic to be down so that Eriadna is unprotected and > dies, and no magic adds to the outrage of the wizards of Alphatia (there is > already the destruction of Sundvsall and the death of the empress and many of > the wizards in Sunsvdall, but they will take a stop of magic much more > personally) so that Zandor will order the assault on Glantri, but for that a > mere DoD seems to be sufficient. Then, when the NoS is tampered with, it drains > magic even more, skyrocketing from the 1 day/yr it has just acquired to 1 > week/yr of no magic, and the WWM starts (while Alphatia sinks, the Red Sun goes > down, etc). See note above about the HW red sun. Also, at the end of Phase III, the adventurers need Rheddrian Benekander to bring them to safety and heal them, which is impossible if the WWM stops Immortal magic, as needed to shut down the red sun. Further, note how p.15 of PWA1 says that Zandor escaped Alphatia's sinking by Teleporting to Aquas. How is that possible if magic fails? Well, if there is only one WWM which blocks even Immortal magic, then there is no way it can happen, but if the failure of magic during Alphatia's sinking was not quite so severe, then it just might be possible. After all, the same page notes that Zyndryl managed to cast several spells to protect Aquas, though he died himself. I handled this IMC by letting the PCs cast spells, roll some dice, then tell them their spells didn't work. The problem can be solved by saying that magic was erratic and any spell only had a slight chance (5%, 1%, or however much the DM prefers) of succeeding. That way you can let magic fail in your campaign and still explain how Zyndryl could save his kingdom and Zandor teleport to safety - they were simply among the lucky few managed to cast spells that actually worked (though Zyndryl's luck wasn't quite enough to save himself, obviously). > Shortly after the WWM has started Rad is absorbed into the NoS, > though, replenishing magic in the world, so that although the WWM takes place > the rad level has dropped so that only a DoD will occur every year; Yes, but don't forget that the PCs reprogrammed the NoS. When Rad is pulled into the NoS, it no longer drains power from the Sphere of Energy but from Entropy, or else it's in a transitional period which lets it drain just enough Energy for magic to fail and then drain the rest of the power it needs from Entropy so that it can destroy Alphatia. Otherwise it makes little sense that the "mere" destruction of Sundsvall caused an entire WWM, while the destruction of all of Alphatia caused only a single DoD during which some spells actually worked... > also, the > surge in magic allows Immortal spells to work again, so that Palatarkan can > save the Floating Islands which were plummeting into the ocean after > Alphatia, This is a problem no matter what you do. Immortal magic failed during the WWM. We know that because the HW red sun went out, yet the Floating Islands of Ar(kan) were unaffected. Sure, you can make the argument that magic returned quickly enough for Palartarkan to save Floating Ar(kan), but then why was the HW red sun dark for an entire week? Whichever way you look at it, something just doesn't fit in that scenario. > and Ixion (after one day--he is still recovering from the experience with Rad > and the Old One and stuff) > recreates the gate restores the Red Sun Doesn't the red sun function independently of Ixion? I mean, sure, he is the sun prince and created it, no doubt there, but I'd think it would last as long as Immortal magic works, regardless Ixion (Zandor's later success at dispelling it being a special case). > (and then > the Council of HW can recreate the SoP, Alphatian Immortals can recreate the > just sunken Alphatia in the HW, ...). > - The Stalker ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2002 17:39:46 -0800 From: The Stalker Subject: How do you pronounce "geas"?? I've been wondering about this one for some time now... I'd prefer it if someone could mention a word it rhymes with since do phonetics is such a problem in this form. - The Stalker ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 12:51:55 +1100 From: shawn stanley Subject: Re: How do you pronounce "geas"?? At 17:39 8/02/02 -0800, you wrote: > I've been wondering about this one for some time now... > > I'd prefer it if someone could mention a word it rhymes with since do > phonetics is such a problem in this form. in his reading of Chivalry Neil Gaiman pronounces it like gay-us shawn stanley what have you done for me lately ... more to the point what have i done for me - mightyfew, "i can't wait" ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2002 21:18:28 -0500 From: SteelAngel Subject: Re: How do you pronounce "geas"?? On Sat, 9 Feb 2002, shawn stanley wrote: > in his reading of Chivalry Neil Gaiman pronounces it like gay-us Among my gaming groups, I have only heard it pronounced 'geez', rhymes with cheese. Ethan -- Kinard 210 Linux Guru Webmaster www.steelangel.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2002 23:24:30 -0800 From: "Jenni A. M. Merrifield" Subject: Re: How do you pronounce "geas"?? > SteelAngel wrote > > On Sat, 9 Feb 2002, shawn stanley wrote: > > > > in his reading of Chivalry Neil Gaiman pronounces it like gay-us > > Among my gaming groups, I have only heard it pronounced > 'geez', rhymes with cheese. I say Geas with the first syllable the same as my pronunciation of the first syllable in the word "geisha" and the second syllable as "us". Using Shawn's example, I would have written it as "gee-us". However, given that the Merriam-Webster dictionary (see link below) specifies to pronunciation alternatives for the "gei" in "geisha", one similar to "gay" and one similar to "gee", our different accents (I'm from Canada) explains the differences between our pronunciations). "geisha" at Merriam-Webster online dictionary: http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=geisha Given the pronunciation rules from the Merriam Webster online dictionary at http://www.m-w.com/aschart.htm I'd present the pronunciation of geas as: geas = 'gE-&s, also 'gA- Jenni ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 7 Feb 2002 to 8 Feb 2002 (#2002-39) *************************************************************