[Glorantha] Fights on Ships

[Light Castle]

Ugh. "Fiights"?

First off, the Wyter/Guardian question.

> (Donald R. Oddy)

> This seems to depend on the type of wyter (see pg.93 of HQ). An
> archetype only acts through the leader of the Hero Band, an
> emanation is based in an object while a manifestation wanders
> arround independently. The last may be able to move between 
> different groups at speed but the others are going to have 
> influence only where they are. Of course if the wyter is a rock
> with an ability to to protect the tula it may well have a range
> covering the whole area involved.

Interestingly, Greg seems to answer this somewhat in the new Q and A he
put up on Immortals. (http://www.glorantha.com/support/hq_rules-qa.html)

"And, after departing their mortal coil, there is a difference between
being a Guardian and being a worshipped entity. The main difference is
that the latter is able to grant magic while that can be used while it
is not present, the former must be present."

So the basic answer is no, if the Guardian isn't there, you don't get
the magic. (And, as you point out, only a manifestation seems likely to
be able to move about on its own to be present.)

And now the fight:

> (Donald R. Oddy)

> Except he and Kallyr are leading the fight, it very much looks as
> if they were both supposed to be thrown off the ship yet Kallyr
> doesn't miss him until she returns.

Yup. Having dug out my Gathering Thunder, my whole premise doesn't work.
It's Danar himself who says, "Get ready. These are the ones you must
kill. Kallyr and I will take care of Hathdaran."

Also, "Kallyr and her companions join in on the heroes' side, and
foremost in the fight is Danar."

So the idea Danar wasn't supposed to be involved in the fight is right
out. 

> Possible idea, does obtaining immortality involve sacrificing your
> current body? Then the fight is intended to destroy Danar's body
> enabling him to reincarnate as immortal - but it doesn't work.

An intriguing idea. (I have no idea about the immortality requirements.)

> From: Paul Andrew King <paul at morat.demon.co.uk>

> Assuming that getting thrown off the ship was the objective. 
> Minaryth says that "Kallyr wants to kill them before they find us" 
> implying that the plan is to stay on the Ship longer.  While it does 
> look as if Kallyr intended to meet the dragon, it certainly isn't 
> clear that the fight was started with the intention of getting thrown 
> off, and it looks to me as if Danar was meant to stay on board even 
> after the rest of the Questers departed (hence Kallyr doesn't notice 
> that Danar is missing).

It is extremely confusing. The ship doesn't stop at the Dragon Isles, so
presumably Kallyr always intended to get off somehow. The fact she
conveniently gets thrown off exactly where she needs to is why I first
suggested this. 

Unfortunately, even my idea that you need to get thrown off doesn't
work, since there are a group of Elves who abandon ship and jump the
rail right at the beginning. The thought that how you leave the ship
matters also doesn't seem to work, since the Dragon Isles are sighted
before the fight.

I briefly considered that this *isn't* the Dragon Kallyr comes looking
for. She just takes advantage of what she has after a bad choice. But
Minaryth tells the PCs before the quest that Kallyr's real purpose is
not just to raise the ship, but to meet the Star Dragon that was cut up
by either Orlanth or Yelm. So this is presumably the right stop.

If fighting is the only way to get thrown off, Kallyr does a lousy job
of letting anyone know, which you would presumably want to do if the
idea was to cause enough disturbance to get thrown off and no more. If
Danar was never supposed to go over the side, he shouldn't be leading
the fight (and the fact that Kallyr doesn't miss him makes me think she
assumes either he was still on board or that, like dying on the Dragon
Isle itself, death was only supposed to send him back to the Mortal
Plane, not really kill him).

To be honest, I'm really not sure what she was up to the way the thing
is written. 

LC