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# Part of Simon Phipp's RuneQuest/Glorantha Site

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Glorantha is a Fantasy world setting and RuneQuest is a Fantasy Game.
All articles on this web site are game rules or background to the Fantasy setting and are not intended to be taken in any other way.

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Simon E. Phipp

Copyright (c) 2000 Simon E.Phipp
Last Updated On 25 June 2000

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# The Fire Pods

The Fire Pods were created from a liaison between Flamal and a Fire Goddess and were given to Eurmal as a favour. Eurmal discovered how to gain the magical powers of the Fire Pod after watching their effect on ZaZoob the Dentist.

Fire Pods resemble small peppers, about the length of a man's finger, green in colour but dotted with a brilliant red. The plant they grow on is unremarkable in appearance and can be found in the Holy Country and Southern Sartar around the Footprint. Some have tried to transplant it to other areas and a few examples can be found in New Pavis and northern Sartar where they are used for cooking.

Fire Pods are extremely hot spices and are hotter than the hottest real world peppers. They cannot be eaten without preparation as they will literally burn the mouth, doing damage each round until spat out, as the mouth catches fire. The secret of preparation is to have the Fire Pods eaten by one who is magically protected, then when the Fire Pod is passed out of the body as excrement, it can be prepared as a normal spice. This is quite an unpleasant process and often causes physical harm to the first eater of the Fire Pod. However, once cleaned up, the Fire Pods that have been previously eaten can be used as normal peppers.

Fire Pods are quite expensive and can sell for 20L- 50L each, depending on their strength.

Fire Pods have a Potency that depends on the season. This Potency determines their relative strength and also what damage they do to those eating them.

Season | POT
Sea | 2D3
Earth | 2D4
Fire | 2D6
Dark | 2D4
Storm | 2D3
Sacred Time | 2D2

When eaten, a Fire Pod does its POT in damage each round to the mouth and the throat if swallowed. This damage is cumulative and will eat through armour and protection spells. When passed out, the Fire Pod does its POT in damage to the bowels and rectum, causing considerable pain.

There are known HeroQuests that enable Fire Pods to be eaten and to bestow magical powers. Several cults know of rituals that allow Fire Pods to be eaten and to give a fiery breath, doing the POT damage to an opponent. Eurmali know of similar rituals that give the Fiery Fart, doing the POT in damage to an opponent. Both the Fiery Breath and Fiery Fart are skills with a base of 10% that can be increased through experience.

Eurmali in the areas to the north of the Footprint can gain the Fiery Fart spell from a shrine in the area. However, they must first eat a couple of handfuls of unprepared Fire Pods. Very few survive the process without magical protection or trickery. These that do may sacrifice for the following spell:

Fiery Fart (1 point, reusable, instant, range 10m, stackable)

This spell causes a jet of flame to burst noisily from the rectum of the caster of the spell. This flame can be directed at an opponent and does 2D6 damage per point of spell and has a chance of hitting an opponent starting at DEXx3% and increasable by experience. If the caster is wearing trousers or other clothing around the rear he must make a Luck Roll or his clothing will catch fire. Most Eurmali prefer to raise their skirts before casting this spell, so as to avoid this effect. The spell can be stacked to increase the damage done or to increase the range by 10m per point. The fire so produced will set fire to clothing or other combustible material and acts in a similar way to an Ignite spell.

Members of the ZaZoob cult in Sartar and the Holy Country can HeroQuest to gain the Fiery Breath spell shown below. Each spell is gained by eating a Fire Pod and by sacrificing 1 POW for the spell. The effects of passing the Fire Pod afterwards are generally excruciating and most HeroQuestors will have an Eurmali to hand to extract the Fire Pod and gain his own Fiery Fart spell through similar methods.

Fiery Breath This is identical to the Fiery Fart spell above, except that the fire comes from the mouth, not the rectum.

Members of the ZaZoob cult gain the following skills and spells:

- Skills: Craft (Dentistry), Craft (Butchery), First Aid
- Spirit Magic: Healing, Staunch Blood
- Divine Magic: Numb Mouth

  Staunch Blood (1 point Spirit Magic)

  When cast on a bleeding wound, this will instantly and permanently stop the bleeding. It does not restore lost hit points to the wound, but does allow the person to carry on normal activities without fear the wound will open up. As such, it is useful when performing Heroic actions. This spell will stop bleeding from a wound affected by the Seal Wound spell but will have no effect on bleeding wounds caused through HeroQuesting. It will stop wounds suffered by those with Chalana Arroy's Bleeding Curse.

  Numb Mouth (2 point, non-stackable, reusable, temporal)

  When cast on a person, this numbs the mouth area so that no pain is felt in the mouth. This is generally used to allow the caster to remove teeth from the affected person. However, it also prevents pain being felt from burns, wounds or other effects. The mouth is made numb by this, so any skill involving the mouth, such as Bite, Speak (Language), Sing, Play (Wind Instrument) is reduced to 25% of the normal skill.

  ZaZoob was a friend of Arroin during the Darkness and also preferred to use his skills rather than concentrate on magical abilities. However, he could numb mouths and gained the secret of the Fire Pods. His cult is often found as a subcult of Arroin or Chalana Arroy and is known in Sartar and the Holy Country, although even there it is not popular or well known.

  [End]