Summoning Beast Lords: a question for Loz (more or less)

[smiorgan]

Hi,

The Elric of Melnibone rulebook text on summoning Beast Lords leaves me puzzled when it says:

"A sorcerer needs to know High Speech, the Beast Lord’s name, and the Summoning Ritual skill (which, when summoning a Beast Lord is always
at half the usual base percentage)."

and a few lines below in the example: "He is fluent in High Speech and his base Summoning Ritual skill is 35%."

The text seems to assume that there is ONE Summoning Ritual Skill, but in fact in MRQ Elric each summoning is its own skill. How should I interpret the passage?

Does it means that a character has to learn (through research or via a mentor) a Sunmmoning Ritual (Specific Beast Lord) and this skill is then halved when trying to summon the Beast Lord?

For instance, Varnak the Unwise (POW 18 ) researches a ritual for summoning Meerclar in the library of Cadsandria perusing occult feline scrolls, the player spends 2 improvement rolls and Varnak gains the new advanced skill Summoning (Meerclar) at 18%. He can now attempt to summon the Lord of Cats, his success chance being 9%, which can be brought up to 18% by sacrificing mice (+1% for each mouse).
Varnak buys 9 fat rats from a local rat catcher and ritually kills them during the meowing invocation. His chance is now 18%. He rolls 30 and fails.
Being quite headstrong he goes back to the library, discovers the arcane role of purring sounds and spilled milk in the invocation. He succeeds his improvement roll and raises his skill to 22%. Now his base chance is 11%. He makes the required rat sacrifices and raises the chance up to 22%.
This time he rolls 03 and he can make a Pact with the Lord of Cats. He sacrifices 2 POWs, which add to his CHA 12. Now he has a skill Pact (Meerclar) 14% which he will use for his further feline invocations. The elaborate summoning ritual he had researched has now become useless.

Is that correct?

Smiorgan

 

[Loz]

Yep, Smiorgan, that's correct.

As the text for the Beast Lords makes clear, only Melniboneans really have the power to rouse a Beast Lord owing to their ancient pacts, so it should be nigh-on impossible for Varnak to learn how to do it from books in Cadsandria (but hey, Your Elric Will Vary!).

But you've spotted some unclarity in the text and an error. First, although each summoning has a specific type of summoning skill, the base chance for any summoning is equal to POW. So in the example of Malagan in the book, he shouldn't have a Base Summoning of 35%: it will be equal to his POW (less any dedicated POW).

You can, effectively, roll your POW, halved, if you already know a summoning ritual (any) to attempt to summon a beast lord. I would suggest that if Varnak is successful in researching Summon Meerclar and spends his rolls to gain it at 18%, then you shouldn't halve it to 9%. But as I say, researching such a summoning should be incredibly difficult, even for Melniboneans.

To continue summoning Meerclar, then you need to establish a pact with it, as you describe in your example. So yes, if someone goes and somehow researches a Summon Meerclar ritual, uses it, then establishes a Pact, he doesn't need to use the Summoning again - the Pact skill takes over, even though it may be at a lower %age. POW from sacrificing rodents will still count towards summoning Meerclar again. And remember that calling on a Pact reduces it by 1D6% for Beast Lords.

The rules are there to deter people from forming Beast Lord pacts and extravagant summonings. The Beast Lords don't come with the baggage one gains from the cults of Law, Chaos or the Elements, and as the saga makes clear, the Beast Lords have zero interest in human affairs, only stirring themselves when Elric makes a desparate plea and calls on the long-held pacts of his forefathers. Human sorcerers should have a really, really hard time summoning a Beast Lord and are likely to waste much time in research, just as Varnak does, if they pursue it.

Hope that answers the question!

 

[smiorgan]

Thank's a lot for the clarification, Loz.

I get the spirit of the rule. It sounds right that it should be rare and difficult to summon a Beastlord and to establish a fresh pact with it.

Smiorgan