Harshlax said:
I have also a Yelornan initiate in my group of players. At initiate level, most yelornans do not ride a unicorn, they ride other mounts that they have stolen, bred, captured or bought (mostly zebras or horses, but also other praxian mounts, depending on the tribe of origin of the initiate). Unicorns only get available once initiates prove their worth to the cult. Only then, the priestess tells the initiate the secret of how to get a unicorn, which is a heroquest that retells how Yelorna became a friend of Father of Unicorns. This is a difficult heroquest, because the initiate must undertake it alone. It is a "this world" heroquest, so the power of the heroplane is invoked in the mundane plane and the heroquest develops in the mundane plane (in the plains of the Wastes).
Simon Phipp has described this heroquest in his huge webpage, as well as in a recent issue of the magazine Tradetalk.
The idea of making the powers of the unicorn progressively available to the rider is a good one. It may depend on a skill that you could call "Connection with (name of the unicorn)", which I'd start at 25%+CHA, for instance. Then you could stablish thresholds at which different powers become available. :wink:
