Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal - part II

Originally Posted by Zirunel

Hi, sorry to pluck this one fragment out of your post, but although I kinda understand everything else, I don't understand this part. Who should be most concerned but wasn't?

M. A. R. Barker and David L. Arneson come instantly to mind. Phil was much more interested in his novels then in game products, which I can certainly understand, and Dave was convinced that the future of gaming was in black-powder period historical miniatures - which I could not then, and still cannot now. Neither felt that RPGs were all that big a deal, and so the investment of time, energy, effort, and money in the Tekumel product lines stayed at the effectively fan-produced level for years. Phil felt that once he'd done EPT for Dave and Gary, he'd done his bit; he never finished S&G because he lost interest in the project. The AGI line was a 'lunch-time project' and always took a back seat to the production of the AGI line. (See also DLA's regularly referring to us as "the Tekumel boat people".)

Originally Posted by Neshm hiKumala

Howdy,

Lord Chiriné, I've been taking some time to read the "Seal of the Imperium" journals. Yesterday, as I was going through the Volume 2-2 issue, I came across a fascinating passage about the "Inexorable Chlén Cart of Chirené baKál" (page 139).

01 - The passage mentions that the cart exists "outside of time and space", thus moving "inexorably". Is the cart "in-between" spaces because of a divine intervention by Lady Dlamélish, as the text suggests, or is there another reason for the miracle?

02 - Who are the two people guiding the cart? I'm referring to the "gnarled, seedy, bald, old man" and the "fresh-faced little boy" a.k.a, the "assistant driver"?

03 -"Chirené baKál" and not "Chiriné Bakál"?

Thank you.

There's a story behind this; it was a running gag in Phil's campaign. To answer your questions first:

1. Dlamelish is a part of the story, but Carl was trying to make it fit into game terms better.

2. Some guy from the Clan of the Turning Wheel and his nephew.

3. It's my name; I used to spell it with two 'e' and one 'i', but too many gamers were confusing me with Chirene the Dragon-headed Warrior of Nylss (a very distant ancestor) and overthinking the connection. I started going with the two 'i' and one 'e' when I went on the Internet to avoid confusion. Or, it could be a typo, and I'm overthinking it.

The story...

Okay, so we're in that lovely little town on the Missuma that's halfway between Jakalla and Bey Su - Usenanu - staying at the wonderful guest house there. We get invited to a party at the local Governor's palace, and one of the new players thinks it's a great idea to get his jollies by groping one of the ladies at the party - hey. this is fantasy role-playing, you know so why not have a little fun! We advise him not do do this, both in-game and out, and he goes ahead and goes after her anyway. She takes offence - she's a priestess of Dilinala, and she's the governor's daughter. She complains to Poppa, and he 'suggests' that we deal with Mr. Studmuffin and do it promptly. Poison or knives, he's not any too particular. The entire party tries to explain to Mr. Studmuffin why he - and the rest of us! - are now in the deep do-do, and he just doesn't get it. Things got nasty, so the priestess of Dlamelish with the party cast a 'Concupiscence' spell (with the usual results) and I zap him with the Excellent Ruby Eye. He's now safe and sound in a stasis field, so we put him in a box with lots of wood shavings ("Excelsior!" Gronan roared, at his end of the table, grabbing the chance at a joke with both hands) and we then hired a chlen cart from Turning Wheel and loaded him up in his nice new box. We paid for the cart to be sent to Fasiltum, and off went Mr. Studmuffin - the lady was happy, the Governor was happy, and we stayed alive.

After a lot of discussion about the local culture and stuff, the player still didn't get it, so I sent a messenger to Faslitum, with instructions that once there, the cart was to head to Khirgar with the load. I then sent another messenger to Khirgar, with instructions that the cart was to proceed with load to Penom. And so on, and so on, and so on. I was paying for all this, so the clan was happy.

Phil thought that this was the funniest thing he'd heard of in years, and laughed himself silly at the entire notion. So, about every six months in his campaign, for as long as our group lasted, we'd be out someplace in his world and the cart would be on the road, or path, or whatever. The cart will take you anywhere on Tekumel you want to go - eventually. The chlen-beast, driver, his assistant, and the cart itself do not seem to age, and they are not affected by anything around it - players have tried to affect the cart, but have fallen prey to a strange lassitude and apathy that causes them to leave the cart alone. Anyone can ride on the cart, but they have no effect on it or the load no matter what they do. If any god is involved, I'd be inclined to think Dra the Uncaring.

Hence the name, "The Inexorable Cart of Chirine ba Kal".

(And yes, I have it in miniature, complete with little box full of player-character and (balsa) wood-shavings.)

Does this help explain things?

Oh holy Crom I had forgotten. Who WAS that, anyway?

Excelsior, indeed. I couldn't have stopped myself for a cartload of Khaitars.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Oh holy Crom I had forgotten. Who WAS that, anyway?

Excelsior, indeed. I couldn't have stopped myself for a cartload of Khaitars.

It was Tom Thompson - his first of three PCs in Phil's campaign. The second, Jajal, became the harbor-master in Jakalla in an attempt to recover the chest full of gold he'd accidently dropped into the water; the third was the new chancellor in Hekellu, and vanished through a nexus point when we were out on the Sirsum campaign - he left behind his wagon, and we were quite astonished at the contents.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

There's a story behind this; it was a running gag in Phil's campaign. To answer your questions first:

1. Dlamelish is a part of the story, but Carl was trying to make it fit into game terms better.

2. Some guy from the Clan of the Turning Wheel and his nephew.

3. It's my name; I used to spell it with two 'e' and one 'i', but too many gamers were confusing me with Chirene the Dragon-headed Warrior of Nylss (a very distant ancestor) and overthinking the connection. I started going with the two 'i' and one 'e' when I went on the Internet to avoid confusion. Or, it could be a typo, and I'm overthinking it.

The story...

Okay, so we're in that lovely little town on the Missuma that's halfway between Jakalla and Bey Su - Usenanu - staying at the wonderful guest house there. We get invited to a party at the local Governor's palace, and one of the new players thinks it's a great idea to get his jollies by groping one of the ladies at the party - hey. this is fantasy role-playing, you know so why not have a little fun! We advise him not do do this, both in-game and out, and he goes ahead and goes after her anyway. She takes offence - she's a priestess of Dilinala, and she's the governor's daughter. She complains to Poppa, and he 'suggests' that we deal with Mr. Studmuffin and do it promptly. Poison or knives, he's not any too particular. The entire party tries to explain to Mr. Studmuffin why he - and the rest of us! - are now in the deep do-do, and he just doesn't get it. Things got nasty, so the priestess of Dlamelish with the party cast a 'Concupiscence' spell (with the usual results) and I zap him with the Excellent Ruby Eye. He's now safe and sound in a stasis field, so we put him in a box with lots of wood shavings ("Excelsior!" Gronan roared, at his end of the table, grabbing the chance at a joke with both hands) and we then hired a chlen cart from Turning Wheel and loaded him up in his nice new box. We paid for the cart to be sent to Fasiltum, and off went Mr. Studmuffin - the lady was happy, the Governor was happy, and we stayed alive.

After a lot of discussion about the local culture and stuff, the player still didn't get it, so I sent a messenger to Faslitum, with instructions that once there, the cart was to head to Khirgar with the load. I then sent another messenger to Khirgar, with instructions that the cart was to proceed with load to Penom. And so on, and so on, and so on. I was paying for all this, so the clan was happy.

Phil thought that this was the funniest thing he'd heard of in years, and laughed himself silly at the entire notion. So, about every six months in his campaign, for as long as our group lasted, we'd be out someplace in his world and the cart would be on the road, or path, or whatever. The cart will take you anywhere on Tekumel you want to go - eventually. The chlen-beast, driver, his assistant, and the cart itself do not seem to age, and they are not affected by anything around it - players have tried to affect the cart, but have fallen prey to a strange lassitude and apathy that causes them to leave the cart alone. Anyone can ride on the cart, but they have no effect on it or the load no matter what they do. If any god is involved, I'd be inclined to think Dra the Uncaring.

Hence the name, "The Inexorable Cart of Chirine ba Kal".

(And yes, I have it in miniature, complete with little box full of player-character and (balsa) wood-shavings.)

Does this help explain things?

Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant.
It's stories like this that make me wish I could have played in Phil's game with the original Thursday Night Group, and the kind of thing I strive for in my campign(s).

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

It was Tom Thompson - his first of three PCs in Phil's campaign. The second, Jajal, became the harbor-master in Jakalla in an attempt to recover the chest full of gold he'd accidently dropped into the water; the third was the new chancellor in Hekellu, and vanished through a nexus point when we were out on the Sirsum campaign - he left behind his wagon, and we were quite astonished at the contents.

So, are you going to tell us what was in the wagon...

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant.
It's stories like this that make me wish I could have played in Phil's game with the original Thursday Night Group, and the kind of thing I strive for in my campign(s).

Well, we tried to have fun, and I think we did pretty well at it. I still run my own games this way - I don't hold with the notion that game play is serious business and must be approached with solemn concern for the right way to play. If you ain't laughing your head off in the first fifteen minutes, I have failed you as a GM.

As Gronan can tell you, I do things with style and panache. It's funnier that way.

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

So, are you going to tell us what was in the wagon...

It's in the book, in Book Five. You may not have that part yet, so...

Three million kaitars.

At 3 grams each, that's nine million grams of gold; some tons worth, as you might guess. (About sixteen cubic feet of filthy lucre.) He'd dumped it ll into the Imperial treasury in Hekellu, issuing himself a writ for the money that he figured that he could cash back in the central empire and then took off. Phil was pretty cheesed off at him for bugging out, and took a moment out of the game play to politely remind Yours Truly that there was an entry on my 3x5 card saying that the Imperium owed me some money. Lord Takodai, the NPC Governor, took this opportunity to make good on the writ and pay off the Imperial debt. I located and hired a very secure vault, at very high speed.

Decades later, I was watching "Rome" one of Phil's favorites, and there is a scene where one of the heroes discovers a wagon full of the treasury of the Temple of Saturn. I laughed all over again, as I knew Phil had...