| From: | Ereskanti <Ereskanti@***.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Artifacts & Relics (Re: Magic and the Church) |
| Date: | Sat, 25 Apr 1998 19:07:56 EDT |
nexx@********.NET writes:
> Send me info... this sounds cool.
>
How's this for an informational switch.. I'll send everywhere...
"the Hoosier Hacker House" games deals heavily in artifacts and relics (Binder
is a major character influence of course :). Somewhere along the line, the
"Ark of the Covenant" was one of the targets for such a focus. Recently, in
what we termed our "Winternight Wars", the Ark was required in order to defeat
the great wyrm "Jormundgandr" (our patron for Winternight).
Anyway, the Ark contains the Ten Commandments, but using fiction to support
fiction (as per the movie), the Ark was found to contain sand. The actual
tablets were not within it (but they are, just not in plain view). The "Sand"
was actually clay dust of an extremely fine nature. In this case, the "dust"
is the "sand" that God used to craft Mankind from. When applied with
Elemental Water (a special Alchemy process used to refine water and combined
with a Quest of Power (Elementality), creates the right kind of water)...the
"Clay" can be used for Allies and the like (works wonders for Work Loa).
The Ten Commandments (the actual tablets) are actually in the lid of the Ark
in our games, hidden within some braces and sheets of purest gold (again,
radicalized forms of such, with other enchantments all over the place). In
order to read them, you have to remove a specific sheet of gold that is made
to look like part of the inside lid.
The Ark is counted as "THE" Major Artifact in our games. Being able to open
it without problems has actually become a sort of test to pass for certain
characters.
We sort of gave the objects a scale of sorts. Normal Foci and the like known
in the SR books standard are "Level 1" things. Centering Foci and Metamagic
Foci in general are "Level 2" things. "Level 3" things is where our
rules for
Threading start to enter the picture. "Level 4" and up are objects from
previous ages that have managed to survive (such as the Knife in Dunkelzahn's
Will). The Ark is a Level 7 object...something whose entire existence you can
shape years worth of campaigns around and not even try.
"Excalibur" should it exist (as the SR NPC's indicate it may not), would be a
Level 6 object for instance. ON that scale.
Our reason for "7 Levels?" Go find the Bible, the Gnostic Texts, and a few
other books (NO CLUES MIKE!!!), and you'll get the idea...
-K
