SV: [DL] Manitou Name [pretty long]

["Ole Ingvar Stene" <oleingva@ifi.ntnu.no>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Bryce <SandChigg@rocketmail.com>

> Well, can you give us some more informaiton about him/her/it?  Does the
> manitou have a sex?  What's its MO?  What does it look like?

Okay, perhaps I should tell then (I am surprised no-one said 'call him Bob', though Sam was close enough). But first, just in case one of my players, even though I said that he should not, has joined the list:



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Torgeir, (or anyone else of ya for that matter) if you are there, DO NOT READ FURTHER! This is NOT a minor spoiler! You'll ruin the surprise for yourself, me and the others if you keep reading. It doesn't matter if your're not going to play so often. GIT!

Think he got the point?

Well, it goes like this: One of the characters (Torgeir's, incidentaly) has an mysterious past. Long, long ago (about 1500 or so, the exact time is undefined) one of the character's ancestors made a pact with a manitou. The pact can be used up to thirteen times by a single member of the family, after that the manitou comes to get that unfortunate person's soul. The pact also gives all members of the family potential to be powerful mages, even if only one person can hold the real power of the pact at a single time. After the Reckoning, the pact became really powerful.

The 13 times restricion have been forgotten during the ages, so when the huckster McOwen got the pact from his great-grandfather, he knew nothing about it. The only thing he knew was that he had a scar on his left hand from mixing blood with his great-grandfather when transfering the pact. The way the pact works is simple, it is just like the Luck o' the Draw harrowed power, starting at level 0 and gaining a level every two times it is used (level 1 at 3rd use, 2 at 5th, 3 at 7th and so on). Every time it is used, everyone present can feel a chill and a diming of the light that increases with the level of the power. On the 13th use, the manitou comes to get is price. In two sessions, the player had used the power 11 times.

I asked the player about his worst nightmare, and he said it was a manitou (any manitou, he doesn't know about the manitou in the pact) clawing it's way out of the scar in his hand. I swallowed a grin and said, "sure, that works well. Good." Now, I had originally though that the manitou could make a rift and climb throught there, but this was just to cool to give up. When it comes, it is climbing out of McOwens HAND. 

As for what it looks like, I am going to leave that vague. I will describe enormous, scaly, spiked, black limbs climing out of his hand, and a terrible head more horrible than their worst nightmares, but that is all. I want each player to see HIS manitou. They know it is big, black and ugly, and that is all.

When it has climbed out, it will claim McOwens soul. This happens with a dominion check: The manitou counts as having total dominion. If the huckster goes bust, he dies without coming back. If the maniout goes bust, it must return to the hunting grounds and try again later. Anything else happens, McOwen dies to return Harrowed in a few days. 

What happens then, time will show.


Marshal Ole I. Stene