Cauldron of Plenty.

[Dan Jones]

I remember that! Terrifying. Prepared me for a teenage fear of nuclear war, though.

Yes! I still have that exact book and version, I read it to my daughter these days

As for the Cauldron... glad you solved the conundrum, Ray1

 

[tinkerdan]

I sort of like the blood idea; but only to help get the real thing started.

Let's say they are hungry enough to kill and either threaten one of the animals and do damage or the animals attack each other. The damaged one takes refuge in the cauldron and when they finally check on it they find it feasting.
They think its the blood and they do all sorts of bloodletting to no avail.

Perhaps somewhere along the line the frustration builds till one of them attacks the other and that one grasps the cauldron thinking that the animal has been protected all this time while it was there and they claim refuge with the belief that they can't be hurt while they touch the cauldron. This works and they get food so they all think that they just have to have faith the cauldron will provide without realizing that the cauldron in truth is not a cauldron of plenty but one of dependence. It slowly works at making them dependent up it by building a false confidence that it will defend, protect, and feed them.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Actually like most magic, the Cauldron doesn't exactly work as you might think
It's more like a dumb waiter.

I want lots of fantasy, but not at crazy level in the 12th C and later Celtic MSS.
I want to loosely base the background on stereotypical Irish Myth, but as much as possible rolled back as if finding a historic truth and then adding my own alternate fantasy rather than the "Celtic Fan Fic." of the 12th C and later monks. Which really began to go mad with neopaganism maybe as early as 18th C.

Lady Gregory is probably the most accessible English language source closer to the 12th to 16th C sources. But even her stuff is pretty mad.

So I'm trying to have as little contradiction of Lady Gregory.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

kill and either threaten one of the animals

Wolf, owl, and Rook that are "familiars"?
a) Very unpalatable breeds.
c) A bit like cannibalism, (talking deer vs dumb deer in Narnia).

Anyway, I'll see what the reader thinks of this chapter. Next the truth about Alice and Bill, (I hope the reader only thinks Alice and Bill have been dishonest, in different ways and not that the writer has been dishonest.). After that the confrontation at the tower of the Black Enchanter.
(A bit like the "dread pirate roberts", it's not been the same person the last 600 years.).
Also why is ...