Myth of the Month: Chalk Man (July 2002)

July 2002

Here is a sample out of the upcoming HeroQuest book. This is one of the sample independent Animist Practices that is being provided in the rule book. Please excuse anything in this that might be new for rules. Please be patient.

Greg Stafford

Chalk Man

Helper Practice of Many Skills

By Greg Stafford

Chalk Man

Chalk Man is an earth spirit that rose up from the ground from near Donalf Flats, and left behind him the great outline still visible there where no plants ever grow. Chalk Man heard Grazer was imprisoned by Rabbitface and went to free him. He gambled, but lost and had his eyes taken out. He went away, stayed at Granny Vo’s tent, and killed the thieving badger for her, and married her daughters Dera, Dara and Dora. His new uncle gave him gambling sticks and he went back to Rabbitface. He wagered his wives in a bet with Grazer as the other wager, and he won, then he wagered for Grazer’s brothers and won, and then he won back the other spirits, the other gods and finally all the people. Then Rabbitface was killed. Chalk Man did some other great deeds too, such as sending the mountain giant away to settle elsewhere and founding some families of people. In the end he retired to an underground chamber whose invisible entryway is someplace near where he raised himself from the ground.

Fetishes to Chalk Man are the gambling sticks that were used to free Grazer. These are identical to the ones that Grazer used to create the Spirit World. Helper Practice for hunting.

  • Entry Requirements: Worship any shamanic Tradition 16; Chalk Man Mythology 12, Follower of Chalk Man 16
  • Abilities: Gambling Stick Game
  • Virtues: Scrupulously adherent to good hospitality rules.
  • Practice Spirits: These other spirits can be contacted or gotten by going to Chalk Man to gamble. He always asks for the same thing as a wager: the gambler’s wife.
    • Dera. Red Deer spirit, cognate to Damala. Practice spirit of Help on Hunt.
    • Dara. Weasel root (an edible tuber) spirit. Practice spirit of Endurance.
    • Dora. Orphan girl, capable of making a woman pregnant. Practice spirit gives a female a baby, or a man death.
    • Ikspit the maggot. This came out of Rabbitface’s crushed skull. When summoned with the Chalk Man rites it heals illnesses that cause fevers, drives hostile spirits out of a woman’s body, or stops the rabbit pox in children.
    • Orbidi, Badger Woman, a spirit that can be sent against any member of the Jolating race, mountain beings, or entities that live on mountain tops, which it scratches and bites to drive away.
  • Secret: Unknown. Chalk Man is a being unto himself.
  • Fetishes: Gambling sticks, decorated for different helpers.
  • Disadvantages: Temporary practice.

The game is played with five sticks that are rounded on their surfaces to have two sides that share edges. They are black on one side and white on the other. They all have various runes and signs on them as well, usually only on the black or white sides, not both. The sticks are dropped or thrown down all at once on the ground, results are read and bets are exchanged. Although the game has consdierable random element, people friendly with the sticks “know how to throw them.”

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