Whether home-made milk taffy or mass-produced chocolate bars with patriotic images on the wrappers, the simple fact of being sent by their loved ones lend special significance to candy arriving in a parcel from home to a Red Fleet soldier.
Those wise in the old ways are able to send much more than simple calories and greetings with those packages. The candy is transformed into the physical presentation of a magical conduit, allowing spiritual strength and warmth, love and concern and hope flow from the sender to the recipient.
An hour-long ritual is needed to bless a piece of candy in such a manner. As part of the ritual, a single recipient has to be specified. Only characters to whom the ritualist has an allegiance are eligible as recipients. Any Red character possessing at least one rank in the Kast or Ritual skills is assumed to possess the necessary knowledge top enact such a blessing ritual.
Upon eating the blessed candy, a fatigued recipient immediately gains 1d4 temporary hitpoints. An exhausted recipient becomes fatigued instead. Both effects last for half an hour.
Characters, who were not the intended recipient of the candy, normally gain none of the above benefits. Exemptions may be made in special cases, provided that the other character would also be covered by the same allegiance that linked the character blessing the candy to the original recipient.
The party and the kommissariat take a very a dim view of such folk sorcery. Even though the vigor and extent of prosecution varies with the political climate, anyone even so much as entertaining thoughts of enacting a candy ritual risks arrest and exile to the special labor camps of the Eastern Tundra.
In a way, this may also be considered a preliminary installment to a series of articles addressing the theme of soldiers’ mothers in The Red Star, that I have been working on, on and off, for the last few years.
The Red Star and all related characters are ™ and © Christian Gossett. Used with kind permission.
The Red Star Campaign Setting is © Green Ronin Publishing, LLC.
The Red Star und alle verwandten Charaktere sind ™ und © Christian Gossett. Verwendet mit freundlicher Genehmigung.
The Red Star Campaign Setting ist © Green Ronin Publishing, LLC.