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Last Updated On 1 June 1998

# Unicorn Quest

This Quest is generally performed by Yelornan cultists in order to gain a unicorn mount. The Quest is usually only successfully performed once by any person as the unicorn thus allied will stay for life and will be resurrected even if killed. Of course, if a Yelornan Unicorn Rider loses her virginity and is ritually purified then she may perform the Quest again in order to gain a new unicorn.

Unlike many Quests, this is rarely performed for any reason apart from gaining a Unicorn. Some Yelornans will use the Quest to gain another intelligent mount who is not a unicorn, but some of the stages do not work in the same way so this makes such a Quest more difficult. The Quest is usually performed as a Practice Run Quest as there is no reason to perform it any other way. Unicorns gained when the Quest is performed on the Hero Plane will be substantially more powerful than normal. It is rumoured that Jar-Eel is planning such a Quest but as many people know, she is no virgin and is unlikely to be purified, being excellent breeding stock.

## Mythos

Yelorna Starbringer was born while Yelm was Emperor and married to Ernalda. When her mother was stolen away from Yelm her children became out of favour. Despite their protestations, Yelm would not recognise them as his children. Once, Yelm approached Yelorna and told her that he was giving her in marriage to one of his Angels and that this would give her the legitimacy she desired. Yelorna was appalled by this and refused, pledging herself to be a maiden until she met the one that she could love.

Once Yelm had died, Yelorna tried to help the people who called out in fear. She spoke to her intended husband and his friends, calling for them to help the people below. Many listened to her and appeared to the people as Stars in the sky. Many of these Angels even followed Yelorna's lead and fell to the Earth giving immediate aid to the people.

Many of Yelorna's relatives were involved in the struggles of the Darkness and fought the forces of Darkness, Storm and Chaos. Yelorna decided to join them and fight these horrors. To do this she needed a sturdy mount. Her brother Yamsur rode the Hippogriff, her brother Yelmalio rode the Ostrich first then the Horse, her father rode the Griffin. Yelorna determined to find a mount at least their equal. She visited all the Beast Fathers and looked to them for a companion. Many spurned her, some were willing but she was not. Finally, she saw the Unicorn Father in the Dark Sky. Seeing his pure form and mighty horn, Yelorna was overcome by lust and desired intercourse with the beautiful beast. She approached him and made her offer but was refused by the haughty beast. Enraged she jumped on his back saying that if he would not ride her then she would ride him. As the Unicorn bucked and struggled between her legs, Yelorna felt the strongest pleasure she had ever experienced and swore to herself that she could ride no other beast. They struggled for a long time until both were exhausted. The Unicorn Father reluctantly agreed to allow Yelorna to ride him, but said that should she lose her maidenhood then he would no longer serve her. From that day on, Yelorna remained pure and rode the Unicorn Father.

## The Quest

### Summary

The Quest allows a virgin Yelornan to find and persuade a unicorn to be her mount. It creates a bond between them that is only broken by one of their deaths or the Yelornan losing her virginity.

### Preparation

A member of the Yelorna cult wishing to perform this Quest must satisfy the conditions to become a Unicorn Rider, namely she must be female, a virgin, have 90% Ride Unicorn [1] and must be pledged to celibacy.

Those Questors who are not members of the cult of Yelorna must be virgin females. They must be skilled riders otherwise the Unicorn will not respond to them. They must also be human or aldryami, although the Quest has been performed by Angels in the past.

The Questor must ritually purify herself with pure waters and must bathe naked under Starlight at a sacred spring [2]. She dries herself using the Starlight and dresses in silver and grey clothing. She takes up her bow and spear and shouts a greeting to the Stars as she sets off on the Quest.

All travelling on the Quest is done by night. During the day the Questor must seek shelter and sleep.

### The Journey

The Questor must walk to where unicorns are known to roam. Normally when the Quest is performed in Prax the Questor will know the best places for this. This stage of the Quest may take several nights, depending on where the Quest began. Usually, the Questor will have companions helping and guarding her as this journey is perilous.

The Questor must make Scout Plains, Map Making or similar skills in order to find the best place to begin searching for the Unicorn. At some stage on the journey she will be met by foes determined to prevent her from gaining the Unicorn. These foes may be Praxian Nomads, usually Storm Bull cultists, Orlanthi adventurers, Broos, Lunars or ogres. They will try and make the Questor turn back, normally through combat. If they defeat the Questor they will try not to kill her but to dishonour her and take her virginity. Thus, she will have to walk back to her temple, naked and shamed.

One of these encounters will take place during the day when the Questors are resting.

During these encounters, the Questor may use the spells of Shooting Star and Shield heroically, that is if the spell is known reusably then it costs Magic Points to cast, otherwise it costs POW to be used again and again.

### Defeating Night

The Questor is always confronted by Xentha's minions on this Quest. These may be trolls, morokanth, followers of Raven or members of the cults of Zorak Zoran or Argan Argar. They will try to kill the Questor as they are opposing Yelorna rather than the gaining of the Unicorn. The Questor may use the spells of Shooting Star, Shield, Summon/Command Salamander and Light heroically during this encounter.

### The Hunt

Once the Questor has reached the area where Unicorns are known to frequent, she must try to find a unicorn. This involves using all her hunting skills. As Yelorna is a hunting cult [3], members have an advantage on this Quest. Questors may use the spells of Catseye and Silver Track heroically on this Stage of the Quest.

The Questor must find a unicorn. Normally, she makes a Luck Roll to find a unicorn's tracks then uses Silver Track to make tracking easier. She follows the tracks until she finds the unicorn itself. This may take a long time - make a Luck Roll, it takes a number of nights equal to the POW modifier rolled to find the unicorn, so if POWx1 is rolled then the search takes 1 night, if POWx5 is rolled the search takes 5 nights.

Once the Unicorn is seen, the Questor must sneak up to it and face it herself. If the unicorn sees her (only if she fails her Hide/Sneak) then it will run away leaving her to continue to follow it, taking another night's travel.

### Meeting the Unicorn

Once the Questor has neared the Unicorn she becomes enamoured of it. Roll against her Lust + the unicorn's APPx5 [4]. (For instance, if the Questor has a Lust of 10 and meets a Unicorn of APP 12 then she must roll against 70.) If she fails the roll then she knows that this is not the Unicorn she wants and moves on to find another.

If she makes the roll then she strips off her clothes and runs towards the unicorn begging him for his attentions. The Unicorn always resists her request unless she has special magics to force him to mate with her [5]. If the unicorn decides to mate with her then he will do so, deflowering her and fathering a foal [6]. If the foal is male then is will be born as a small unicorn, if female then it will be born as the same race as the Questor but an especially delicate and fine woman, blessed with beauty and purity. The Quest, of course, will have failed here.

Assuming the Unicorn decides not to mate with the Questor he will try to move away. The Questor must leap onto its back and ride it.

### The Ride

The ride may be abstracted as a single roll or it may be a number of events with riding rolls made at penalty. In any case, if the Rider is not a master rider then she will fall off and fail. At some point, the Questor must roll her Lust + Ride in order to experience Yelorna's Joy which is the pleasure that a woman may achieve through riding. Once this has occurred, the Unicorn will sense this and will slow to a halt. [7]

### The Return

Once the Questor has experienced Yelorna's Joy, a bond is made between the Unicorn and the Rider and she must sacrifice 1 POW in order to make the bond concrete and permanent. This bond takes the form of a Mindlink between Unicorn and Rider which can never be broken until the Unicorn or Rider is dead and cannot be brought back. In such an event, the surviving member is distraught and cannot function for a time, amongst unicorns this varies from a week to a season, amongst Riders it varies from a year to a lifetime. Only once this mourning period is over can the survivor take part in another Quest to gain a new Rider/Unicorn.

The Rider returns to the Temple on unicorn back. Normally she will return to her companions first and retrieve her clothes, although some merely return naked in order to fully appreciate Yelorna's Joy. Those who complete the Quest and return with a Unicorn may join the Unicorn Riders even if they are not members of the Yelorna Cult. This normally applies to those members of the Unicorn Tribe, but most of them will decline this offer and return to their Tribe.

## Notes

[1] Ride Unicorn is equivalent to Ride Horse and is learnt as Ride Horse until a Unicorn is gained. Once the user rides a unicorn she learns the techniques to ride a unicorn rather than a horse and at that point the skill diverges. The Unicorn Rider may use her skill at 75% when riding a horse unless her skill was higher when she first rode a unicorn.

[2] This Quest has decidedly erotic overtones. The fact that Yelorna is a virginal cult, combined with the fact that Unicorns may only be ridden by maidens and that some women take sexual pleasure (so I am told) from riding horses gave me the idea for this take on the Quest. If this offends anyone then I apologise. Also, I am sorry if I have not captured the full eroticism of this Quest which I can visualise but not accurately portray. It can be run very successfully in this way.

[3] Even though Yelorna is not normally thought of as a hunting one, their spells and skills are perfect for hunting. The Unicorn Tribe has Yelorna as their prime Huntress deity.

[4] As most Yelornans have a very low Lust trait they sometimes try to enhance this on the Quest, sometimes by using traded spells, sometimes by using potions or plants. A particular favourite is Arroin's Joy which increases the Lust trait considerably for a short period of time. There are dangers in using this as the Questor may be tempted to lose her virginity on the Quest rather than to complete the Quest.

[5] Unicorns will be forced to mate here with exotic magics only. They will mate even if they have mated already in the year, contrary to their normal mating habits. All unicorns hate doing this and will be enemies of the Questor from that day on. Questors who mate with a Unicorn will never be able to perform the Quest successfully again - all unicorns will know that she is nearby and will flee even if she has been repurified.

[6] This is one way the Quest may be used to gain a mount other than a unicorn. In this sense, the mount is not gained to be ridden as normal but is used to mate with the Questor. If the mount is not a unicorn but is intelligent then it must make a Lust roll. If it succeeds or if it wishes to, the beast will mate with the Questor. If it fails the roll then it will run off in disgust.

This is sometimes used by Grazelanders in order to gain magical foals from the Goldeneye horses. It may also be used to gain a child from a Beast Hero or Deity. Such foals are unusual and often intelligent. Children fathered by a unicorn will be the same species as the mother, those fathered by non-unicorns will be of the same species as the father and will be worth around ten times the value of normal beasts.

[7] When the Unicorn has sensed Yelorna's Joy he stops because he knows that he has satisfied her sexually without undergoing the messy deed itself. This is because the Unicorn is the ultimate in eroticism.