Peach pits? Seriously, now.

[Uncle Servo]

The Yama Kings can be harmed by peach pits? Did I hear right? Is this actually part of the real mythology?

There should also be a demon of spousal abuse named Earl who can be harmed by mega-damage black-eyed peas.

Well, given the fact that in Norse mythology Baldur could be killed with mistletoe I can accept the Yama Kings being susceptible to peach pits... which also goes a long way towards explaining why you don't see too many Yama Kings in Georgia.

[Daniel Stoker]

The Yama Kings can be harmed by peach pits? Did I hear right? Is this actually part of the real mythology?

There should also be a demon of spousal abuse named Earl who can be harmed by mega-damage black-eyed peas.

I'd say yes it is in the original mythology. I know you are supposed to be able to stop a chinese vampire with sticky rice... heck, according to European lore a vampire has to untie any knot he comes across.



Daniel Stoker

[Jefffar]

Well, peach pits do contain cyanide

[taalismn]

[I'd say yes it is in the original mythology. I know you are supposed to be able to stop a chinese vampire with sticky rice... heck, according to European lore a vampire has to untie any knot he comes across.



Daniel Stoker

All part of the fun here....Having the PCs load up on portable artillery sticking out of every pocket and bodily orifice they can, and havingnone of it work on the big bad demonic monster from beyond....when what they should have done is load up on the household cupboard or samples from the lumberyard...

Of course, though, a lot of the old folk lore has been lost, along with the libraries and literacy to make use of them, so it's unlikely that many of these simple vulnerabilities can be efectively capitalized on....Another reason why it's a good idea to listen to the real old codgers and villages that have survived the centuries, despite not EVER having seen high-tech even before the Rifts...

Still, the image of a particularly zealous Chinese horror-hunting band researching this, then Shifting to another location on Earth(or staging a raid on another dimension), conducting an orchard raid, and then suiting up for some Yama assassination is too wild...either a brilliant epic adventure or a fool's quest....

[Daniel Stoker]

Speaking of vampires and Knots, i seem to remember something else in the classic lore about them having to pick up small objects if spread around (a compulsion to pick up poppy seeds or nuts, or grains of rice) being used in some of the movies.

There is the one about needing to eat poppy seeds mixed with the one where they have a compulsion to count objects/seeds.



Daniel Stoker

[Killer Cyborg]

The knot untying and grain gathering both are well used in the sequal to Dracula 2000.
Fun movie.

Luckily Palladium skipped the grain-picking one... because if it applied to sand (as it does in some legends) than every vampire in mexico would be dead by the next sunrise...

[Uncle Servo]

Still, the image of a particularly zealous Chinese horror-hunting band researching this, then Shifting to another location on Earth(or staging a raid on another dimension), conducting an orchard raid, and then suiting up for some Yama assassination is too wild...either a brilliant epic adventure or a fool's quest....

You know, that's not the worst premise for a campaign I've ever heard...

[ExcuseMySarcasm]

Great X-Files on that rice picking, knot-untying vampire issue.

[Daniel Stoker]

Still, the image of a particularly zealous Chinese horror-hunting band researching this, then Shifting to another location on Earth(or staging a raid on another dimension), conducting an orchard raid, and then suiting up for some Yama assassination is too wild...either a brilliant epic adventure or a fool's quest....

You know, that's not the worst premise for a campaign I've ever heard...

I was thinking more of having the players get caught in an epic adventure to retrieve a lost book that will tell them one of the secret weaknesses of the Yama Kings. THey venture far and wide and eventually find it, only to find it's in English! They then have to find someone who can translate the 'strange' language (assuming no one has eyes of thoth) which could lead to more adventures and struggle as they look for a 'sage'. Then see what they do when they are told that the weakness is a mere peach pit, something they could have gotten at a stall right outside their home.



Daniel Stoker

[Scyber]

Peach Pits?

I guess Brandon Walsh is safe at work then

[Killer Cyborg]

has anyone seen the sequel to Dracula 2000? they capture dracula and put sun lamps on him. the paranoid guy puts a net of ropes on him and throws a bunch of sand or seeds all over th place.
when dracula gets free the net falls off him untied ( he had like two days to untie it but u never see him touch mor ethna one part of it)
the paranoid guy starts runnign and is like "ur suposed to count those!"
dracula just points at them and says something like "720,746"
and so the paranoid guy grab a cup full of the seeds and throws them and yells "count this" as if he didnt get it the first time.
while the seeds are in mid air dracula says something like "853,921" <another seed falls from the cup> "22"

i recomend this movie for that scene only, funny as hell, the rest isnt to great.

Easily the best scene in the movie.

Which is why, when I mentioned this movie earlier, I didn't ruin it for anybody who hasn't seen it yet.

[Killer Cyborg]

And ANYTHING through the heart incapacitates a vampire. Dracula was taken down with a big knife in Bram Stoker's original novel.

Well, yeah.
The whole point of staking a vampire was just to pin it to the ground so it couldn't get away.

[Borast]

The Yama Kings can be harmed by peach pits? Did I hear right? Is this actually part of the real mythology?

Well, given the fact that in Norse mythology Baldur could be killed with mistletoe I can accept the Yama Kings being susceptible to peach pits... which also goes a long way towards explaining why you don't see too many Yama Kings in Georgia.

Re: Peach pits...why not, they contain cyanide I believe...

Actually, he can be harmed by a weapon made of mistletoe.

I'd say yes it is in the original mythology. I know you are supposed to be able to stop a Chinese vampire with sticky rice... heck, according to European lore a vampire has to untie any knot he comes across.

They also, according to lore, had to obey any order issued to them by a person born on (I believe) a Saturday. The legend in particular had a person born on the appropriate day simply shout an order out while standing in a barn – essentially “Come to me!” When the vampire arrived, the person ordered it to count every single piece of grain in the barn, and it proceeded to do just that. When the sun rose (the front of the barn faced east), the person opened the door, and when the sunlight paralysed the vampire, they staked it, killing it.

[grandmaster z0b]

Actually Baldur wasn't killed by mistletoe, that was an old idea based on a bad translation. The more modern idea is that it was a specific magical weapon.

Peach Pits: in Taoism the peach is a symbol of Yin (because of it's resemblance to the female anatomy) therefore peach pits are an essence of Yin and I presume the Yama kings are very Yang. This however is a simplification, one needs to study for years to understand chinese folklore let alone try to understand the Tao. Which somehow I think the writers probably didn't try to do. Not that I expect them to as it's just a role playing game, but they would have probably heard or read about this weakness in their research without understanding why themselves.

It's only a matter of time before someone invents the peach pit rail gun and takes one of these guys out, it is Rifts after all.

[Uncle Servo]

Actually Baldur wasn't killed by mistletoe, that was an old idea based on a bad translation. The more modern idea is that it was a specific magical weapon.

Now you've got me curious... do you know more of the 'old idea based on a bad translation' story?

It's only a matter of time before someone invents the peach pit rail gun and takes one of these guys out, it is Rifts after all.

I've seen 'anti-vampire' wooden stake ammunition (if memory serves Columbia utilizes it with their gyrojet-style ammo/weapons), so that's not as farfetched as one might think.

[taalismn]

It's only a matter of time before someone invents the peach pit rail gun and takes one of these guys out, it is Rifts after all.

I've seen 'anti-vampire' wooden stake ammunition (if memory serves Columbia utilizes it with their gyrojet-style ammo/weapons), so that's not as farfetched as one might think.

Or the minor super power 'HyperProjectile Spitting'(used to best advantage by the supervillian 'ChawMan')

[Killer Cyborg]

Actually Baldur wasn't killed by mistletoe, that was an old idea based on a bad translation. The more modern idea is that it was a specific magical weapon.

Now you've got me curious... do you know more of the 'old idea based on a bad translation' story?

Uh, yeah...
From what I remember, the Gods went to every living (and non-living) thing that existed and got them to agree never to harm Baldur, since he was such a great guy and all, but they overlooked the mistletoe.
Since Baldur was invulnerable, the gods started playing games where they all threw stuff at him. A blind god, (Hodor, I think) felt left out and Loki (who was jealous of Baldur and somehow found out about the mistletoe) gave Hodor a mistletoe dart to throw and pointed him in the right direction.
And the dart killed Baldur.

What part is mistranslated? The vulnerability to mistletoe seems pretty built in to the entire myth...

[grandmaster z0b]

I'll have to wait till I get home and find the book, but from what I remember the old norse word for "mistletoe" was misstranslated. Originally they didn't know what the word was, but it was similar to the word mistletoe so they presumed that's what it must be. In hindsight they now think that the word is actually the name of a small magical weapon or other object, the vikings were into naming even ordinary ogjects.

I'll post more when I get home and can back myself up.

[grandmaster z0b]

In regards to the death of Baldur, one current theory is that the name "mistilteinn" is the name of a sword or other weapon. By the time the christian monk Snorri translates the myth he has confused several earlier tales into one.
In an article be Professor Eric J. Sharpe on Scandinavian Mythology it says about the killing of Baldur: "Frigg said that there was only one thing, a plant called mistilteinn, which seemed too young to take the oath. Loki found the mistileinn and pulled it from the ground" This myth appears to be a variant of the theme of the dying god of vegetation, though without the element of his annual return to life. The mistilteinn though, can hardly have been the mistletoe, as had long been supposed.. Rather it seems to have been a weapon."
The legends say mistilteinn which was "pulled from the ground", not mistletoe, which is a parasitic plant which grows on trees.
Also this article: http://www.northvegr.org/lore/rydberg/101.php talks quite a bit about an earlier saga where Baldur is a demi-god and Hoder is the hero, who must quest for the magical sword mistiltienn, which is the only thing that can kill Baldur. Yet even this translation contains contradictions.
Basically, even scholars aren?t certain what it is.

[Drakenred®™©]

In regards to the death of Baldur, one current theory is that the name "mistilteinn" is the name of a sword or other weapon. By the time the christian monk Snorri translates the myth he has confused several earlier tales into one.
In an article be Professor Eric J. Sharpe on Scandinavian Mythology it says about the killing of Baldur: "Frigg said that there was only one thing, a plant called mistilteinn, which seemed too young to take the oath. Loki found the mistileinn and pulled it from the ground" This myth appears to be a variant of the theme of the dying god of vegetation, though without the element of his annual return to life. The mistilteinn though, can hardly have been the mistletoe, as had long been supposed.. Rather it seems to have been a weapon."
The legends say mistilteinn which was "pulled from the ground", not mistletoe, which is a parasitic plant which grows on trees.
Also this article: http://www.northvegr.org/lore/rydberg/101.php talks quite a bit about an earlier saga where Baldur is a demi-god and Hoder is the hero, who must quest for the magical sword mistiltienn, which is the only thing that can kill Baldur. Yet even this translation contains contradictions.
Basically, even scholars aren?t certain what it is.

Dont tell me he was killed by a mushroom!

[Thinyser]

Well, peach pits do contain cyanide

so do other pits (apricotes and cherries) as well as apple seeds!

[Natalya]

Peach Pits: in Taoism the peach is a symbol of Yin (because of it's resemblance to the female anatomy) therefore peach pits are an essence of Yin and I presume the Yama kings are very Yang. This however is a simplification, one needs to study for years to understand chinese folklore let alone try to understand the Tao. Which somehow I think the writers probably didn't try to do. Not that I expect them to as it's just a role playing game, but they would have probably heard or read about this weakness in their research without understanding why themselves.

It's only a matter of time before someone invents the peach pit rail gun and takes one of these guys out, it is Rifts after all.

Actually, isn't Yin also associated with the negative side of chi, along with femininity (and a whole host of other balancing factors)? I would think that the Yama Kings would identify more with Yin than with Yang.

I wonder if it has more to do with the symbolism of Peaches of Immortality?

[Qev]

Well, peach pits do contain cyanide

so do other pits (apricotes and cherries) as well as apple seeds!

Actually, most of a cherry tree has a cyanide precursor (prunasin) in it, especially the leaves, IIRC. This gets converted to cyanide when the leaves are damaged.

Hehe, how is a vulnerability to peach pits any sillier than Achilles' Heel?

[Kalinda]

Or melting from being hit with a squirt gun...

[Killer Cyborg]

The Yama Kings can be harmed by peach pits? Did I hear right? Is this actually part of the real mythology?

There should also be a demon of spousal abuse named Earl who can be harmed by mega-damage black-eyed peas.

Well, given the fact that in Norse mythology Baldur could be killed with mistletoe I can accept the Yama Kings being susceptible to peach pits... which also goes a long way towards explaining why you don't see too many Yama Kings in Georgia.

Or, for that matter, in Beverly Hills 90210...

[Warwolf]

Actually, most of a cherry tree has a cyanide precursor (prunasin) in it, especially the leaves, IIRC. This gets converted to cyanide when the leaves are damaged.

Yet another reason to laugh at the idiots that smoked cherry leaves when I was a kid.

Or, for that matter, in Beverly Hills 90210...

You know KC, sometimes I wonder about your mental health...

[Qev]

Yet another reason to laugh at the idiots that smoked cherry leaves when I was a kid.

And here I terrified myself by boiling sumac leaves. "Hey... what's that strange, almond smell? ...... oh crap." I got rid of that pretty fast.

[Killer Cyborg]

Or, for that matter, in Beverly Hills 90210...

You know KC, sometimes I wonder about your mental health...

What... were there Yama kings there?
Did I miss an episode?