2005-10-04 Homework answers for JoeRheaume.
Even if your character doesn't do much more than pay lip service, I bet you wrote down a deity for your character. Why does your character worship that god? Please include a short ceremonial act or prayer that you do in order to show your worship. How often does your character pay service to their deity?
The Vesuvian ceremony is held in the rock-carved shrine made by Gerdan and his sons (most of whom moved on, leaving only the youngest, Faersen to take over) A 5' diameter stone mortar lies in the middle of the far room, carved out of the same rock, and so still part of the ground. The bowl is filled with sweet-smelling herbs and bark, oil, and charcoal. It is kept smoldering, tended by the on-duty cleric, either Gerdan, Festus, or Aidan. While keeping the fire burning, the cleric offers prayer in Terran, in such a low-pitched voice that the vibrations can often be felt elsewhere in the shrine. Smoke is ventillated though a carved chimmney system. The fire is believed to be a symbolic release of the anger within the mountain. The cooking hearth, and the forge, each in separate rooms, are always lit from the altar fire. Once a month a huge bonfire is lit in the altar, and there is a happy-drunken dwarf party. This relieves family tension as much as it does the tension within the mountain.
Now that Aidan is an adventurer, he prays each morning for spells, meditating over a bit of charcoal-incense in a tiny stone mortar. He also directly invokes the mountain or Obad-Hai when casting spells. (He sees the mountain as being a face of Obad-Hai with a particular personality, but the only face that Obad-Hai uses in whole Hellfurnace area) I need to work on invocations for each spell I use...
Mozilla and Faersen are considering having another child, because Aidan might not survive his adventure, and even if he does there are not enough dwarves to keep the shrine running without fatigue. Mozilla has begun cleric training under her father-in-law (She is a level 1 Druid, so it shouldn't be too hard for her).