Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 4 Dec 2003 to 5 Dec 2003 (#2003-285) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 06/12/2003, 19:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 5 messages totalling 305 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Drugs on Mystara (2) 2. The Five Shires' gazetteer question 3. Immortals (2) ******************************************************************** 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, 5 Dec 2003 16:42:38 +0800 From: "Francisco V. Navarro V" Subject: Re: Drugs on Mystara Hail Mystaran! Of course, there is! The first drug that comes to mind is zzonga, made from the zzonga fruit/plant which originated from Old Alphatia. The fruit looks like a large pink strawberry and its flavor and taste cannot be disguised. It is known to have adverse effects on werewolves (and possibly other lycanthrophes). It became a scourge in the Alphatian Empire, and it was also brought to Thyatis (usually with the intent to sabotage, such as in the adventure, "Arena of Thyatis"). In recent years, zzonga has sprung up in Glantri, specifically, the Principality of Blackhill, imported from Alphatia by Sir Lathan Aendyr, who is the drug lord and mastermind. Even with Blackhill's destruction from the Great Meteor, Lathan had already established his network of purveyors, users, and addicts (including sevearl prominent Glantrian nobles). Most recently, Lathan Aendyr supported the establishment of an aerial trade route (via skyship) from Glantri to Darokin--and thus the smuggling of zzonga into Darokin. Kit Navarro ----- Original Message ----- From: "SUBSCRIBE MYSTARA-L Lothlann" To: Sent: Friday, December 05, 2003 3:29 AM Subject: [MYSTARA] Drugs on Mystara > Hello to all, it's weird question, but i'd like to know if there are some > kind of drugs in Mystara. Thanks to all > > ******************************************************************** > 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, 5 Dec 2003 12:00:58 -0000 From: Colin Davidson Subject: Re: Drugs on Mystara ----- Original Message ----- From: "SUBSCRIBE MYSTARA-L Lothlann" To: Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 7:29 PM Subject: [MYSTARA] Drugs on Mystara > Hello to all, it's weird question, but i'd like to know if there are some > kind of drugs in Mystara. Thanks to all As has been mentioned already, there's always Zzonga. There will almost certainly be the same kind of drugs on Mystara as there are elsewhere. But, of course, on a magical world they needn't be quite the same... How about these for starters: Fly Agaric This familiar mushroom (white stem, red cap with white spots), as well as being lethally poisonous can also be (in controlled doses) a potent hallucinogen. In the Northern Reaches, Qeodhar and Southern Norwold there is a long tradition of priests and shamans using this mushroom to foretell the future, with only a minimal death rate due to its use. The utilisation of this drug really comes into its own in the Broken Lands. Foraying groups of bugbears have been known to head as far as Canolbarth to pick this mushroom in vast quantities. It's picked, sliced, dried, and ingested shortly before battle. Commencing one hour after ingestion, and continuing for 3d6 turns, any human, demi-human or humanoid under the influence of this drug will effectively have the 'fighting frenzy' skill (see Orcs of Thar: briefly, the character will continue fighting after reduction to zero hit points, until reaching a negative value equal or less than his or her constitution score). Any humanoid already with this skill will continue fighting until such a point as they take twice as much damage as that below zero hit points. Example: a bugbear with a constitution score of 15, fighting frenzy skill and under the influence of fly agaric will, if a skill check is made, continue fighting until reaching -30 hit points, at which point the dismembered remains will slump to the floor. Coca Leaves Known to the Azcan and Oltec peoples of the Hollow World, the leaves of this narcotic plant are typically chewed for the startling effect they have of relieving fatigue and coping with high altitutdes. Regrettably, while this plant has allowed many a party of weary travellers to cope with mountain passes that might otherwise kill them, regular use can lead to addiction (DM's discretion). The use of coca (normally chewed with a little lime) can relieve the symptoms of ordinary fatigue for 1d6 hours; after that, further use can extend activity for 1d4 hours. Such extended use leads to chronic fatigue afterwards, with complete rest needed for twice as many hours as the extended 1d4 roll indicated. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2003 14:15:17 +0100 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: Re: The Five Shires' gazetteer question Ricardo, The clan list was accidentally left out of the Gaz. It was supposed to be presented in a later issue of Polyhethron, but never was. I have compiled a list of clans derived from the town descriptions in the Gaz, which can be found at http://dnd.starflung.com/hinclans.html I didn't notice that each would have a rune though, but it is a cool idea. Perhaps we could steal one for each from the Lalor Rune section and assign to each clan? Håvard --- Ricardo Matheus wrote: > I just got a copy of the halflings gaz. and I quote: > > "these runes (clan runes) appear in the clan > summaries on the back of the > main shires map, each with its respective clan" > > My copy of the gazetteer I bought is missing the > fold out map but i have a > scaned version of it and there's no runes or clan > list anywhere. > > Am I missing something? > > Does anybody have this page (with sumaries and > runes)? > > Regards > > ____________________________________ > Ricardo Matheus > a.k.a. Darkblood > Owner of the Mystara Map Navigator > www.geocities.com/darkblood18 > > _________________________________________________________________ > MSN Messenger: instale grátis e converse com seus > amigos. > http://messenger.msn.com.br > > ******************************************************************** > 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. > ______________________________________________________ Få den nye Yahoo! Messenger på http://no.messenger.yahoo.com/ Nye ikoner og bakgrunner, webkamera med superkvalitet og dobbelt så morsom ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2003 14:30:40 +0100 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Havard=20Faanes?= Subject: Re: Immortals --- Chris Furneaux skrev: > Quoting Havard Faanes : > > > The point about the Elementals is an interesting > one. > > Perhaps we should create a similar system for the > > Elementals aswell while we are at it? > > well the key difference between immortals and dragon > rulers or Ellemental > rulers is that to be a powerful immortal you have to > have belivers. Perhaps the > reason dragon rulers always have a simmilar immortal > rank is that unlike normal > immortals where the individual is believed in in > dragon society it is the > position. Therefore any dragon holding that position > has a simmilar power base > as the last one. It is an interesting idea, but perhaps really imbalancing. Another option would be to simply make the new dragon ruler into a fresh immortal, who can advance similarly to other Immortals from that point on. This leaves only the *way of ascention* different from other immortals, not immortal life itself. However, only 4 dragon rulers may exist at any time. For any new dragon to achieve Immortality, he must challenge the existing dragon ruler of his kind. Failure means he becomes an exalted being (described in Dragon Mag as a Dragon Guardian or something like that.) > as for elementals, I think the rulers are probally > naturally as powerful (i.e. > born with, not so much as earned) as the immortals > but that they can only wield > their full power on their elemental plane. So they > are mortal and the rulership > fuctions like a kingdom or empire. Some elemental > creatures would thus have the > desire to seek immortal status as (a) they are > mortal, (b) most do not start > out with power similar to an immortal, and are > highly tied to their elemental > plane. I think the Elemental Rulers should also be Immortal. The elemental planes would be their Home Planes, making them incredibly powerful. However, there may be other laws restricting them, perhaps limiting them from using their Powers outside their Home Plane. I remember the old Immortal Rules where you had to negotiate with the Elemental Rulers to add elemental matter to your Home Plane... Elementals could achieve immortality outside of this system (as could dragons), but they would be considered renegades and possibly be hunted down. > > I remember that the Entropics had twice the numer > of > > the other spheres, but 10 titans sounds awfully > low, > > dont you think? > > Does to me too. but I found it silly restricting the > number of immortals so > much anyway, How can the Mystaran immortals be ALL > the immortals in the whole > multiverse. Are there not likely to be immortals > dealing with other planets > too, and if so how could the numbers be restricted > so low. Yep, it is kind of hard to think about the number of planes and worlds we are dealing with here. If this group of Immortals is limited to one Solar system and corresponding areas on other Planes, that would make sense. Håvard ______________________________________________________ Få den nye Yahoo! Messenger på http://no.messenger.yahoo.com/ Nye ikoner og bakgrunner, webkamera med superkvalitet og dobbelt så morsom ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2003 08:40:37 -0500 From: Chris Cherrington Subject: Re: Immortals > > From: Chris Furneaux > > Does to me too. but I found it silly restricting the number of immortals so > much anyway, How can the Mystaran immortals be ALL the immortals in the whole > multiverse. Are there not likely to be immortals dealing with other planets > too, and if so how could the numbers be restricted so low. > There are 2 arguments for this one, control and demand. Immortals set themselves up by their ranks and levels. Only the powerful can remain on the top, or even get there. This is good for the sphere as a whole, as only the ambitious will find the needed experience to climb up the ladder and be more important and influential in the sphere. There are a great many "fodder" immortals out there to run errands, investigate new planes, impersonate other immortals on their behalf, and most are out in other planes learning their new found powers. If they were important enough to influence people back in their origins, the higher ups will help them learn their new powers faster. That is the control. The demand comes from Mystara being the hot bed of immortal action. Most of the immortals involved with Mystara are really high level. I am sure that many of the immortals dealing in Mystara that don't remember their past don't want to admit they were adventurers from another plan et. "Yeah, I know I am your Immortal sponsor, but I started out as a Hobbit from another world, delivering this ring you see..." The magics involved and civilizations started out from, that causes demand also. Many of the Master level adventures that deal with planar travel expose immortal experiments. Other planes holding thousands of elves or other creatures, but they never develop any immortals, Mystara does. What immortal was it that set up the “Maze”, a system of dropping a couple of low level humans in one plane, and as they are forced to think and fight through to the other end of a great number of planes, end up 36th level and ready for an immortal sponsor? The experiment didn’t work, thanks to immortal tampering by the sphere of Entropy, but Mystara is protected on the Prime, so that “would never happen”. The immortals we mortals know about are known, but the other members in the immortal’s club have other duties that are not so necessary as to influence cultures in Mystara. I had one character achieve immortality as a polymath. He was a Cavalier in Torl, a Cleric in Oerth, a mage and then a thief in Mystara. When he ascended, he eventually created 3 avatars to represent him in Torl, Oerth, and Mystara. Each has their own personality matching that personification that they lived in each world. In Mystara he represented himself as a patron to merchants/thieves, and opposed his avatar as a patron of mages/knowledge. He was his own worst enemies, and his best clients, all in one. ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 4 Dec 2003 to 5 Dec 2003 (#2003-285) **************************************************************