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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Robert Watkins <robertdw@*******.com.au>
Subject: Re: Re: new npc : howling cyote
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 1996 08:38:34 +1100 (EST)
[Re: Howling Coyote learning the Great Ghost Dance]
>> He cheated... :) Actually, that's a good question. Somebody taught
>> Howling Coyote mondo magic, and no-one's saying who (unless you buy the
>> explanation in "Worlds Without End").
>>
>They note in that book that Harlequin does not know who taught him.
>All the literature note that the man himself claims it was a spirit
>of some kind.

In "Worlds Without End", the spirit child of Aina and that Horror admits
to having taught the Dance to Coyote, and also having taught it to a
bunch of Indians in one of the periodic uprisings during the late 1800s
(no, it didn't work then).


--
Robert Watkins robertdw@*******.com.au
Real Programmers never work 9 to 5. If any real programmers
are around at 9 am, it's because they were up all night.
Message no. 2
From: Jonathan Wright <jwrigh01@********.ca>
Subject: Re: new npc : howling cyote
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 1996 17:39:10 -0500 (EST)
Mark Steedman wrote:

> Robert Watkins writes
>
> > >Look at Daniel Howling-Coyote. He
> > >woke up one day and whupped on the US Army. How'd he do that?
> >
> > He cheated... :) Actually, that's a good question. Somebody taught
> > Howling Coyote mondo magic, and no-one's saying who (unless you buy the
> > explanation in "Worlds Without End").
> >
> They note in that book that Harlequin does not know who taught him.
> All the literature note that the man himself claims it was a spirit
> of some kind.
> There are several posibilities

> 4) The enemy. Would love the side effects, well capable of tricking
> him but the question arrises as to how any of them could be on the
> physical plane arround 2015. All the Enemy stuff even in the novels
> is set decades after the Great Ghost Dance. This would mean some
> silly immortal brought the thing over (still corrupted from the
> fourth world?) or another 'bottle' he got his hands on.
>
This last idea sounds neat. If immortal elves can survive through mana
low cycles why can't particularly smart Horrors? In "Worlds Without End"
there are several references to small caches of mana the Elders draw on
to save (or further) themselves now and again. Couldn't a Horror also
have a similar amount of mana and use it to enter a state of hibernation,
hidden away from those that could do it harm? The Horror would awake
when mana rose to a sufficiently high level and begin plotting how to
bring about the Scourge again. Daniel Howling Coyote is perfect for
Horror corruption, angry at his captors and willing to use any force
necessary to liberate his people. This could also explain the early
arrival of the Enemy, Harlequin did not include a hibernating Horror in
his projections for the next Scourge.

Thanks for the idea, I think I shall incorporate it into my campaign.

Jon Wright
Message no. 3
From: "Mark Steedman" <M.J.Steedman@***.rgu.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Re: new npc : howling cyote
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 1996 11:32:02 GMT
> From: Robert Watkins <robertdw@*******.com.au>
>
> In "Worlds Without End", the spirit child of Aina and that Horror admits
> to having taught the Dance to Coyote, and also having taught it to a
> bunch of Indians in one of the periodic uprisings during the late 1800s
> (no, it didn't work then).
>
This must get checked.
Can anyone manage a page reference?
I will try but it might take a few days to find.

Mark
Message no. 4
From: Robert Watkins <robertdw@*******.com.au>
Subject: Re: Re: Re: new npc : howling cyote
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 1996 23:13:48 +1100 (EST)
>This must get checked.
>Can anyone manage a page reference?
>I will try but it might take a few days to find.

It describes how Thais taught the Indians of the 1800s the Dance in Chp
16, pages 126-130.
It implies elsewhere that he also taught Coyote.


--
_______________________________________________________________________
/ \
| "As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it |
| wasn't as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging |
| had to be discovered. I can remember the exact instant when I |
| realizedthat a large part of my life from then on was going to be |
| spent infinding mistakes in my own programs." -- Maurice Wilkes |
| Robert Watkins robertdw@*******.com.au |
\_______________________________________________________________________/
Message no. 5
From: Jonathan Wright <jwrigh01@********.ca>
Subject: Re: Re: new npc : howling cyote
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 1996 19:32:10 -0500 (EST)
On Wed, 31 Jan 1996, Mark Steedman wrote:

> > From: Robert Watkins <robertdw@*******.com.au>
> >
> > In "Worlds Without End", the spirit child of Aina and that Horror
admits
> > to having taught the Dance to Coyote, and also having taught it to a
> > bunch of Indians in one of the periodic uprisings during the late 1800s
> > (no, it didn't work then).
> >
> This must get checked.
> Can anyone manage a page reference?
> I will try but it might take a few days to find.
>
> Mark
>

Page 126 to 130, "Worlds Without End" and then 133 to 138. From my
understanding of the book Aina's spirit child (Thais) attempted to teach
the Sioux of the late 1800's "great ritual magics" to rid their lands of
the white men. Their failure led to the massacre at Wounded Knee. This
could possibly be an early form of the Great Ghost Dance but I don't
think so. It is also mentioned that Thais appeared to the people of
Indochina (albeit disguised as seven headed serpent), would he not have
also taught these people the rituals he taught the Sioux? If so, both
peoples would have enacted Ghost Dances by now (if not for freedom than
for power).

Jon Wright

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about new npc : howling cyote, you may also be interested in:

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Thwap!