The Sinner's Saint

We all wait agog for the Guide to Glorantha and its definitive descriptions of the various bits of the world that have received less attention over the years. Many years back I ran a few sessions set in the Duchy of Pithdaros, about which I knew next to nothing except what was in the RQ 3^rd edition Genertela Book. This is an updated version of a cult I wrote about back then, the Sinner's Saint.

A Very Brief History of Pithdaros

Pithdaros is bit of the Gloranthan equivalent of Medieval Europe that was colonised by the inhabitants of its equivalent of East Africa 900 years ago. The tale is a long and peculiar one (a version of it can be found here).

Way back when the Agimori arrived in Genertela they were looking for a vile and evil god they called 'Bolongo' in their homeland, and after being taken for a bit of a ride by King Ullamal, they realised that Bolongo, or Gbaji, as the Westerners called him, was long gone and settled down to wait for him. They converted to Malkionism and over 900 years their original religion has disappeared without a trace, officially any way. But Bolongo is in fact still about, they brought the deity from Pamaltela all that time ago in the form of a weevil living in the keel of one of their ships (so the story goes) and he still has worshippers.

A Saint for all Sinners

Back in Jolar and other places on the Pamaltealan plains Bolongo is the trickster god, the Empty Mask, a scapegoat for the sins of the community. In modern Pithdaros he is the patron saint of the motley crew of troubadours, prostitutes, smugglers and ne'er do wells in the big cities and of more than a few bandits out in the countryside as well.

He is never referred to by his name, he is called the Sinners' Saint, the Great Sinner, the Saint of Masks or some other euphemism. To name him is to call him, and even his friends among the underclass of Pithdaros wouldn't want to meet him first hand.

His cult is the antithesis of the structured and logical organisation of most Rokari saintly orders or guilds. They are a loud mouthed drunken rabble who meet in low taverns and Thieves' Kitchens to drink themselves stupid, sing loud, bawdy and subversive songs, scrawl graffiti about their betters on the walls of cathedrals (and how do they get their uncannily accurate information?), pull damn fool pranks on priests and nobles, rescue miscreants from the stocks, hold up the Duke's sheriffs on the highway, and blow the purloined tax money on cheap brandy, flashy clothes and fast living.

They are either a stain upon humanity and an offence to all decency, or a bunch of larcenous comedians poking the corrupt and bloated ruling classes in their big fat bellies and puncturing their pomposity. Most of the population of Pithdaros knows at least one scandalous sirvente attributed to the Sinners' Saint and a good proportion agree with the anti-establishment sentiments. The Duke is squeezing the people hard for cash to pay off the loans he took from the Golden Monks of St Onokos and the money-mad monks themselves and the dour tithe-wrangling Rokari clergy get little respect in many quarters as well.

Joining the Cult

Anyone who hangs around with the lowlifes in any Pithdaran city and seems like a likely lad who is ready to steal and stand a few rounds can join. There is no gang boss, no priests, no scripture, just certain rakehells who are admired among this louche set for their daring, their wit and their capacity for hard living who are admiringly said to be 'Great Sinners' and 'Blessed by the Saint'. Many are also feared as dangerous lunatics whose risky antics are bound to put them on a scaffold before too long.

In rural areas the characteristic blank wooden mask of the Pithdaran highwayman and bandit is kept hidden under many peasants floors, and they will invite people they know and trust to 'take up the mask' and join them in raids and ambushes and in wild drunken parties out in the woods.

Typical spells picked up over a convivial ale are common magic such as (Legend) Babel, Bandit's Cloak, Befuddle, Coordination, Detect Silver, Entertainer's Smile, Glamour and Lucky or (RQ6) Babble, Befuddle, Bypass, Cleanse, Coordination, Curse, Dishevel, Find Sliver, Glamour, Incognito, Knock, Mimic, Polish and Tune.

At some point a habitue of these taverns will notice that some of the wildest people have tattoos of a simple shield shaped mask with two eyes and a crooked mouth that is smiling at one side and frowning at the other. If they are unlucky or fortunate depending on how you see things, they may wake up with such a tattoo after a big binge.

Getting that mark starts you on the dangerous path of the Sinners' Saint. His magics are unpredictable, and take the form of spirit possessions. Start a skill of Spirit Binding (Bolongo Mask Spirits). The person will subsequently be randomly attacked by spirits of varying intensity and effect. If possessed the person has the effects of that spirit for 1d6 days, and if a 6 is rolled, another d6 days on top of that and so on as an exploding dice. Unfortunately each spirit doesn't just confer some magic power, it has a passion associated with it as well, and these can drive the Sinner to do some pretty bizarre things.

If the person can subdue these maniac spirits there is a chance they can bind them into a tattoo and call on them at will, though of course this means the passion will affect them permanently as well. A Sinner can have up to one spirit per point of CHA, but each comes with a geas that must be kept up and Bolongo's geases can be difficult.

Sample spirits and effects

The Empty Mask

Enables the Sinner to don a wooden mask and gain a Disguise skill of 20% per intensity, or add +10% per intensity to an existing Disguise skill. People just won't notice that the person is wearing it and will see whatever features the Sinner wants them to see unless they resist the spell. The user can however get carried away, and actually believe he really is the person he is impersonating, a passion with a power of 3d6% per intensity. If bound the geas is usually tell one barefaced lie to a friend or loved one per day.

The Cunning Weevil

Has a 3d6% chance per intensity of enabling the sinner to adopt some weevil like characteristic, such as extra legs or the ability to digest wood or cotton, intensity 3 spirits enable the sinner to become a man sized weevil, and intensity 4 spirits of this kind enable a complete transformation into a tiny 5mm long beetle. Being able to turn into a tiny insect comes in incredibly handy when cornered by the authorities and are tales of sinners who were locked in the stocks and who managed to eat through the wooden apparatus over night and escape, or given short prison rations but who managed to survive by eating the wooden bowls their gruel came in. Unfortunately the user of the spirit has an urge to eat wood, and may talk to passing beetles as if they are old friends in public. The geas for keeping such a spirit bound is usually to leave bread crusts, biscuits or other hard tack every day for his little beetle buddies every day.

The Dicktheif or Boobnapper

Enables the sinner to steal penises or breasts. The victim is the target of a pickpocket attempt but the object stolen isn't their purse or personal items it is part of their body. The spirit adds 5% per intensity to Pickpocket skill in any case and any use of the skill has a 10% per intensity chance of coming away with the organ and not the valuables by accident. Deliberately using the spirit to take body parts double this chance to a maximum of the Sinners pickpocket skill. The victim feels no pain and may not notice the lack for a short period. The organ can be returned and reattached at any time and the victim can still feel sensations through the organ even if it is far away. The magic has a 1d6% cumulative chance per day of wearing off anyway. Those possessed by the spirit have kleptomania, and the geas for keeping it varies from the need to masturbate at least daily, to compulsive organ theft, to removing ones own organ and keeping it in a jar overnight. Similar spirits have been encountered than enable the theft of fingers, to detach the mouth and place it on another part of the body or another creature, detachable ears etc.

The Foulmouthed Muse

Gives the person great eloquence at making poetry, as long as it has at least one swearword in every line. Enhances the skills of Poetry, Influence, Oratory and Commerce by 10% per intensity, but also causes Tourette's syndrome with the urge to swear being uncontrollable. If anyone uses such a skill while under the influence of this spirit, their chance of a critical success goes up by half, but their chance of a critical failure goes up to the crit range as well. Example: Troy Bankoso has Oratory 50% and is under the influence of a Intensity 2 Muse. He has a 70% chance of success at the skill, throwing in the odd swear into his speech, a 7x1.5=10% chance of a critical success, and if he rolls 94-100 (a 7% range) he has a critical failure and repulses his audience instead. The geas from binding this spirit is usually to offend at least one person per day with verbal abuse, though some have had an urge to coprophagia instead.

The Bloody Juggler

Gives the ability to use two daggers as well as the sinner would usually wield one, the off hand being as good as the main hand, gives two extra combat actions as long as they are dagger attacks or parries, and raises the chance of throwing any dagger by 5% per intensity and the damage by 1, and the chance of juggling any three objects by 10% per intensity. Also makes the Sinner very tetchy, and very liable to lose his temper and stab someone for nothing, and the geas for keeping the spirit is usually to stab at least one person a week.

The Drink Demon

While under the influence of this spirit, the Sinner gains in the performance of a variety of skills while drunk and reduced in many others. The exact effects vary, so a person may have enhanced Athletics, Endurance and Acrobatics, while being so smashed they fall off their bar stool and talk in words of one mumbled syllable, other people my get enhanced Influence and Seduction. The more a person drinks the more the skill is enhanced (and the rest of his abilities suffer), and intensity determines how many skills are so affected. The person affected gets the urge to drink of course and the geas for binding the spirit is to never go to bed sober.

Other more conventional spirits enhance heightening skills, dexterity, charisma, strike rank and combat actions.

Use of Spirit Walk or Trance to go hunting for specific Bolongo spirits is not advisable, nor is it a good idea to bind the spirits into anything but a permanently inked tattoo. There are a few conventional shamen in Pithdaros, wise women who talk with spirits of the dead and of the earth and they won't touch Bolongo's spirits with a bargepole. The bloody things gang up on anyone who 'abuses' one of their brethren and the shaman can find them self possessed by a mighty spirit of insanity that makes them want to do any number of insane and dangerous things.

The mention of the Saint's true name, Bolongo, is to invite one of these spirits to inhabit your body. There is a mere 1% chance that on any single occasion the worst will happen, but there are enough tales of respectable folk, even priests who have said the word and who ended up a few months or years later a hardened criminal and layabout.

Where to find the Sinners Saint

There are a dozen or so followers in all the major towns of Pithdaros, and a few score highwaymen in the villages, but their major stronghold is Oradoros, the major port of Pithdaros, where drunken debauchery, anarchy and subversion are all the rage down in the dock district.

Despite the efforts of the authorities to paint the followers of the Sinners Saint as a major threat to the social order they are no such thing, they can and have organised piss ups in breweries, but their agenda stops there, they live in the moment and have no plans to overthrow anyone. The Sinners are however up against a major rival, the Dark Duke's Men, who are organised and who are ruthless.

This recently arrived gang of mafiosi are running protection rackets, handing out licenses to muggers, beggars and burglars and doing unspeakable things to those who defy them. They even look serious, going about their business in smart black doublets and cloaks in the Safelstran style. Many ordinary citizens are actually keen to have them set up in their town - as long as they pay their tithe the citizen really does get no trouble, they are a damn sight more effective than the real Duke's law enforcement. The Sinners are rebelling against this new regime as they rebel against any effort at controlling them, but it isn't working and they are either ending up dead in ditches or going on the run.

So Sinners can now be found in taverns all round the Genertelan coast – an entire whorehouse upped sticks and set up shop in Sog City and are doing well, while mask tattoos are become quite the fashion in the seedier dives of Rhigos in the Holy Country though the ribald songs about the Demivierge can't touch her real depravity, there's a spate of penis thefts in Fay Jee the authorities can't make head nor tail of, and the Master of the Thieves Guild of Handra himself was held up at crossbow point by a giggling madman who spoke in limericks and wore a wooden mask.

Adventure Hooks

• The party make the acquaintance of a squad of mercs from the Army of Tomorrow. Their new sergeant is a tall dark skinned guy who the others try and rib because he comes from a Western country where people are supposedly always late. Mikkal is not ever late, he's a hard nosed bastard who marches them up and down, lays it on with a whip for the least infraction and who never, ever drinks. The guys dare the party to put a bit of Lunar gin in his tea, and thereafter things change rapidly and strangely. Mikkal is a former Sinner, and once the Drink Demon gets to work he goes very odd indeed with all his old Bolongo Spirits coming back to haunt him.
• Pavis is always a bit on the rowdy side, but this week there is a serious party on. The Men and Half have come in off the plains and are having bison roasts in the town square downing the entire city gin supply, smoking all the hazia and running around in spear studded phalanxes singing and swearing the air blue, chasing people up dead end alleyways and not letting them out until they have shouted 'SorEel the Short sucks snake snatch sideways!'. Their chief and elders aren't impressed, all to do with this new shaman who turned up off a boat from Corflu, some crap about an ancient ancestral spirit. Had a shaman try and exorcise it, but he ended up going screwy as a jackrabbit and tried to do it with a crocodile down in the Zola Fel... Bad magic, bad times, but if the braves don't stop sodding about soon the Yelmalios will sort them out.
• Gadda the Garrulous, trickster and court poet to the King of the Lismelder has very rarely been lost for words, but when this foreign doxy he thought he'd seduced down at the Greydog Inn stole his penis and returned it inserted in the back end of a sow he was just a bit nonplussed. When tricksters duel it can be fun, but it can also get nasty. People are waiting to see what this Sibylle the Slanderer is really capable of.

The Servants of the Almighty Dragons

This merry band of madheads appear in Issaries Publications' Sartar Companion, and have made an incidental appearance in my ongoing Griffin Mountain campaign. This is what I make of them.

Why they exist

The Empire of the Wryms' Friends collapsed in spectacular fashion when the dragonewts assassinated its leading mystics, and then during the extended period of anarchy that followed the Dragonkill War broke out and there was a pretty major, if localised, apocalypse in the Dragon Pass region. Who in their right mind would want to revive the worship of dragons?

People not in their right mind of course. The coming of the Lunars has been a colossal shock to the Sartarites; bar a few diehards in the hills they are a defeated people, in awe of the sheer size, wealth, and sophistication of the invading Empire. Most have become bitter and resentful, but the Servants of the Almighty Dragons know just enough history to realise that once the hobnailed sandal was on the other foot – Dragon Pass was the metropolitan centre of a great empire and Dara Happa in the Lunar heartlands the conquered province with a puppet on the throne. Once the people of Dragon Pass embrace their past and revive the worship of the Almighty Dragons, the foreign scumbags will be massacred and Sartar will be a glorious Empire once more!

In many ways the Servants of the Almighty Dragons are like a cargo cult. Being from an impoverished culture a bare couple of steps above subsistence level, only able to sustain a few tiny market towns they have no real idea how a vast state like the Lunar Empire, the Holy Country or the EWF actually works. By simply aping what they hope are its appearances and rituals they hope to bring that military and economic power back into being, and this being Glorantha this method might just succeed...

What they do

The group meet on holy days and conduct ceremonies in their headquarters, a rather dull and anonymous circular stone building in the Scholars' quarter of Jonstown. In between times they all have conventional jobs around the city and in the surrounding villages, several are students at the Lhankor Mhy temple.

Almost no one in 17^th century ST Glorantha has any idea how Wyrmfriendism actually works (except possibly Forang Forash, and since he was a mere layman of the religion with little time for mystical windbaggery he knows precious little. How many ordinary members of the public today could tell you how computers work in any detail, despite modern civilisation practically running on them?).

The Servants have taken the ceremonies of Old Pavis as being the closest thing to the EWF rituals still extant and try and copy what has been reliably observed of the dances of the dragonewts. They also have some travellers tales of what goes on in dragon-obsessed Kralorea and a few translations of inscriptions found in EWF ruins.

The holy days are also conjectural. For reasons best known to himself, Van Varion, the most accomplished reader of Auld Wyrmish, has decided that certain prime numbers are key, with blessed days occurring in cycles of three, seven and seventeen days.

The effects of these gyrations and exhortations are very variable, mostly they do no more than annoy the neighbours, but once in a while an actual magical effect is detected. The group are always trying to encourage actual dragonewts to come to their ceremonies, but none have yet shown the slightest interest in any of their activities. Toothless Tobran, the most adept speaker of Auld Wyrmish and the one with most contact with the creatures through his trading expeditions, has long since given up trying to broach the subject with them.

Their robes are pretty accurate though, copied from Forang Forash's robes and from examples in Pavis. They are elaborate, sewn with painted parchment dragon scales and the hats and helmets are gorgeous with plumes and wires, runes and serpent eyes.

Many of the group are trying to become left handed. They will walk around with their right hands heavily bandaged or in slings, or tied behind their backs, trying to do everything left handed.

Archaeology and Scholarship

The group sometimes goes on research trips to EWF sites and does a bit of digging. The sites are mostly well known and well worked over, but they are always on the lookout for undisturbed places, which have often been declared off limits by tribal priests and chieftains. They have a stall in the market in the yard outside the Lhankor Mhy Temple where they sell all kinds of EWF knick-nacks they have dug up (and bit of Kralorean porcelain and textiles that look the part, and few outright fakes made by a bronzesmith they know). Garstal Shavetop has first refusal on anything decent they come across, and they carefully record all objects before selling them.

The best sites are of course the least accessible, and Van Varion is on the lookout for adventurers to guard the expeditions. He is also wary of letting the nosey parkers from the Irripi Ontor cult know anything about where these secret sites are, and makes a point of trying to sell them the most outrageous fakes so they think he is nothing more than a charlatan. Trouble is a lot of adventurers who have come across this crap may also conclude they are full of it as well.

Van Varion and a few other members are also still apprentices and initiates of Lhankor Mhy and have free access to the library. This right may be revoked soon though, a couple of the senior priests feel that they are erring so close to heresy they may need to be definitively excommunicated, though Garstal Shavetop defends them.

Membership and Magic

Aspirant

Joining is a doddle, pay at least 10L a season to the cult and you are in. You get taught the left handed secret handshake of the cult, can have the Draconic Aspirant tattoos and get entry to the dances and rituals. You also get sent off round the streets with a collection box, get called in to help mind Toothless Tobran's market stall, badgered to pay for your own set of funky robes and to go on sightseeing trips in dragonewt country with his caravan (acting as free guards basically).

Skill and spell training is very ad hoc; essentially the senior members will put on classes and teach common magics to Aspirants who complain enough and who threaten to leave the cult and pay their money to a proper temple. Training in Meditation up to 25% is free, as is Dance, and people usually get taught the common magic spell Understanding at some point.

Student of the Draconic Way

Serious members are expected to dedicate at least 10% of their income to the cult, and though the leading lights are trying to concoct an exam of the kind used in the Kralorean civil service or a ritual challenge of the kind used in some theist cults, promotion is also pretty ad hoc. Essentials are having Meditation at 40% or above, a literacy skill of some kind at 40% or above, Lore (History of the EWF) 25% or above and a couple of other skills at 40%+ if you can persuade the cult they are useful and relevant.

Students are taught the key skills of the cult, Meditation, Speak Auld Wyrmish, Read Auld Wyrmish and the Mysticism (Way of the Almighty Dragons) skill. This last is the sum total of all the magical knowledge gleaned by the cult from their mystic exercises so far and it doesn't amount to very much; the maximum teachable is 10%, and learning the skill as a new advanced skill under the Legend rules gives you (POW+INT)/10, and the maximum gain per week training thereafter is a mere 2% - the Servants do have something mystical going on, but the best of them are merely vaguely glimpsing a higher reality, and that reality may not in fact have anything to do with dragons. Spending improvement points on this skill is only possible if the PC has succeeded in actually pulling off a mystical effect during an adventure.

Meditation is limited to 50% and Read Auld Wyrmish to 50%, though if you can persuade Garstal Shavetop or one of the Priests of Pavis to teach you this can be learned up to 75%. The script is ideographic not phonetic and there are plenty of signs that are now just squiggles to modern readers, and probably refer to concepts that mean little to a non mystic. Learning rate for this skill is halved. Forang Forash isn't much help – he worked mainly using mindspeech and other magics back in the day, and though he won't admit it was merely semi literate in his native tongue.

Speak Auld Wyrmish is limited to 20% plus the crit ranges of Dance, Sing and Play Musical Instrument. Various bells and bits of percussion are required, and gestures enhanced with fans, painted and engraved sticks and face paint. No one is very good at this anywhere in Glorantha, in Pavis and Adari they know a few rote phrases and gestures and those may have become seriously distorted over the years. Toothless Tobran has had the end of his tongue split in an ordeal/operation peculiar to Praxian snake shamen to enable him to speak it better, but it doesn't help much.

The mystical talents available are -

Augment Oratory, Augment Persistence, Augment Speak Auld Wyrmish, Magic Sense and Awareness of Reptiles (see RQ6).

The Servants are well aware of the amazing abilities of Dragonewts and though they do their best to stick to walls, change colour, spit venom, grow claws etc, the meager selection above is all they have managed so far. Some theorise that since they are all mostly pretty weedy scholar and merchant types they are not going to get to the super-warrior powers right away, but someone who is already competent with a sword and quite athletic might manage it if they could be taught the right meditative technique. Such Humakti as they have approached have threatened to cut their goolies off for heresy.

Dragon Disciples

There are only two Disciples, Van Varion and Toothless Tobran, three if you count Forang Forash - though he wasn't actually present at the ceremony, didn't even know about it, and Tobran hasn't worked up the courage to tell him about their granting of this signal honour just yet.

The two constantly bicker, but they need each other. Tobran has the money, owns their clubhouse and actually goes to Tink and Dragonewt country once in a while, Van Varion has the scholarly knowledge and gravitas and actually knows a bit of meditation technique.

Adventure Hooks

• Turns out Van Varion is of quite noble birth, and stands to inherit a bit of property out in Torkani country. One of his cousins wouldn't at all mind if someone did him in, him being an embarrassment to the family and all, though taking out a draconic mystic might be a bit tricky if his powers do actually match his rhetoric.
• That's it, the Servants of the Almighty Dragons are out of here, Minaryth Purple has had enough of these twits cluttering up the library, hissing and gibbering and tinkling finger cymbals at each other. The Servants would like someone to steal certain key volumes they no longer have access to from the stacks...
• Toothless Tobran is on his way to Tink on a trading trip and wants guards. He has acquired a bit of dragonewt skin armour and is going to give it to them as a token of respect. Hopefully the inscrutable reptiles will understand that Tobran himself did not make the armour and massacre all concerned - he has every confidence in his ability to speak the lingo though...
• The son/daughter of the PCs clan chief has been studying in Jonstown for a while, and in their last letter home asked for a quite outrageous sum to buy 'some scaley robes and a new hat', then hasn't been in touch at all for over a season. What is going on? Are the rumours that they have fallen in with a strange cult true?
• Garstal Shavetop is worried. The Servants have been awfully quiet about their last digging trip over at the Zoo ruins. Van Varion showed him the usual old bits of pottery, a rusty windchime and the like, but their usual air of conspiracy and otherworldy smugness has been quite extreme of late, and he has divined that they have something special, possibly dangerous, hidden at their temple. Get it, before the bloody idiots rekindle the Dragonkill.
• Burglary in Jonstown is sadly nothing new, but there has been a lot of them lately and the guards have spotted a man going up and down walls like a spider, or one of those sneaky gecko fingered Dragonewt warriors you hear about, scuttling up and down cliffs and scaring the crap of out folk who get too near their cities. Have the Servants cracked a little draconic mystery?

Monotheism in Legend/RQ6

Now as every Gloranthaphile knows the western part of Genertela is full of Monotheists, people who believe in some variety or other of the one Invisible God whose existence was first deduced by Malkion, the First Man. I'd like to use this type of cult in Legend and RQ6, but just giving monotheist priests sorcery to play with, as they did in the MRQII Second Age material, doesn't feel right. I like the idea that Western cultures do things differently. While in Central Genertela there is magical and spiritual anarchy, in the West they are far more organised, with professional priests providing all the blessings anyone would need far more skillfully and with more oomph than the amateur practitioners of the barbarian lands.

Here is my suggestion as to how to handle it. In the notes below I will be using the terms Grimoire and Manipulation, the Legend skills, but for RQ6 just substitute the Invoke and Shaping.

Blessings (and Curses)

Monotheist communities are built around their churches. Ordinary worshipers donate magical power to magical professionals, Liturgists, to cast special sorcery spells that benefit the whole community called Blessings. These are very weak when used by just one person, but when a whole congregation gets together they can benefit many people across a wide area. The holy books of such religions are full of blessings (though in many religions the lowest clergy will learn a few by rote) and most will have a few proper sorcery spells as well. Most blessings are beneficial, but some religions also have curses, attacking spells that focus the ire of a whole congregation on one target.

To cast a Blessing the Liturgist uses his Grimoire (Holy Book) skill, just as would any other sorcery spell, and can boost its power using Manipulation as usual. But with a Blessing he can also add the Faith of his congregation to the Manipulation (see below).

Blessings last a lot longer than ordinary sorcery, 1 hour per POW point of the caster, not 1 minute, and can only be cast on people carrying the right holy symbol and the faith of the recipient can also affect the potency  of the blessing. Curses also have the extended duration, but can usually be cast on anyone.

Faith and the Chain of Reverence

A Liturgist leading a congregation adds 10% of his worshipers Grimoire skill in the appropriate book to his/her manipulation; this is their Faith score.

Father Umphred has Grimoire (Abiding Book) 60% and Manipulation 50%, but with his congregation of 10 souls each with Grimoire (Abiding Book) 30% praying along with him he adds 3x10=+30 Faith, giving him 50+30 = 80% Manipulation to apply to the blessing, enabling him to affect more people for longer.

In a Monotheist cult there are almost always several layers of clergy. A second tier cleric gets the benefit of half the Faith gathered by his subordinates, plus their Faith, and this can be transmitted across any distance.

Deacon Anslem is in charge of Father Umphred and two other clergy of like ability with similar congregations, He gets 30 x 3 (for the ordinary worshippers) x 0.5 + 6 x 3 (for the Liturgists' faith) = 45 + 18 = +63 Faith to his Manipulation skill. He reports to Bishop Cleeve, who gets half the Faith each of his Deacons gather added together, plus their Faith, the Archbishop above him gets the half the faith all his subordinate Bishops gather, and through the Archbishops the Ecclesiarch wields the Faith of a whole nation. 

Faith can only be applied to casting Blessings, it won't work on normal sorcery. At any given time most worshippers will have the benefits of at least one Blessing and there may well be further blessings on his village, guild, town or fields, regularly renewed in weekly services.

Mana TO Heaven

The magic points to power these mighty Blessings also come from the faithful. The only spell taught to ordinary worshipers by most monotheistic churches is Venerate.

Venerate

Sorcery, Concentration

Can only be cast while holding a holy symbol, this spell transfers magic points up the Chain of Veneration; from Worshiper to Liturgist, from Liturgist to Deacon (or whatever the title of the next higher ranked clergy is), from Deacon to Bishop and so on, and from the highest clergyman to the Invisible God itself. It takes 1 hour plus 15 minutes per magic point transferred to cast, the magic points are stored in the recipient's holy symbol, and it has no range limit. The maximum transfer per day is 1 mp per 10% Grimoire skill. A worshiper many miles away can make his private devotions and the magic points will be moved to his ecclesiastic superior. Occasionally the spell is used to move magic points back down the Chain. A congregation might send a dozen or more magic points to their Liturgist, who may then bless a member of his community, perhaps far away fighting a war, with these magic points for their personal holy symbol, if it has the capacity to absorb them. Magic points can never be passed horizontally to another person of the same standing in the church or sect.

At each level of the church there is a minimum required commitment of magic points per day or per week; worshipers usually have to provide 1 per week, though they often give more, Liturgists have quotas they must pass on to their superiors, and so on up the Chain of Veneration.

Holy Symbols

Different churches use their own unique form of holy symbol; many western ones go for Malkion's Holy Triangle in simple wood or a fancy precious metal job on the end of a staff for Bishops, the Lunar Cerise Church uses Moon runes of various kinds etc. but they all work the same. Each symbol stores magic points, amount varying, for one week. Magic points can only be put into a symbol by Veneration, and you can't transfer points to your own magic symbol. You cannot use a holy symbol that is not of the prescribed form for your sect.

Dedicate Holy Symbol

Sorcery, Autonomous

A ritual of variable length depending on how many magic points you want the maximum stored in a particular symbol to be. The simplest symbols, those worn by the laity, aren't meant to store mps at all, just to act as a conduit for mp to be passed up to the clergy and to enable the worshipper to receive blessings and take a few minutes to do, the whopping great golden jobs carried by Ecclesiarchs were prayed over for days by teams of Bishops and Archbishops. The maximum power storage capacity is one point per 10% combined Grimoire skill of the enchanting clergy and takes one hour per mp capacity to dedicate and costs 5 mp per point capacity. The enchantment process cannot be paused once started, though a group of clergy can work in shifts for the really powerful ones. The magic points stored in a holy symbol may be used for anything, not just Blessings.

Sorcerers and Wizards

An independent Sorcerer has only his own power to draw on, with maybe a few apprentices or assistants lending a hand, but a Wizard, a sorcerer who is also a liturgist in a monotheistic religion, can use his holy symbol to help power his spells. The disadvantage of being a Wizard is that as a clergyman you might find yourself with a church full of peasants to look after, the Churches often have serious restrictions on what spells you can use and you have to clutter up your brain with Blessings, which still take 1 INT point to remember.

Many wizardly orders have peasant liturgists to handle the casting of blessings and the accumulation of magic points from the laity, which are then passed on to a Wizard through his holy symbol to do something useful with. The peasants living on the orders lands and ministered to by their liturgists do not usually mind as long as the Order is a responsible landlord and blesses their crops and protects them from harm, but there are sometimes grumblings. On the other hand peasants on lands owned by certain nobles wish their landlord was a spiritually inclined Wizard who merely asked for their souls and not a greedy noble who took their food and goods to blow on feasts and tournaments.

The Western Caste System

In theory only those born into the Zzaburi (wizard) caste can cast spells, but this is usually held not to include Blessings so Liturgists of other castes do exist. They are not allowed to learn sorcery spells though, even if they are in the holy book (and The Abiding Book allegedly contains enough information, albeit encoded, to cast all known spells). Many lower caste Liturgists are nigh illiterate in any case and only know their few Blessings by rote.

The typical member of the Dronar peasant caste will know very little magic, or ought to know very little magic. Hardline churches like the Rokari regard all magic use by non-clergy, even weedy folk magic charms, as vile and evil Witchcraft. Other sects like the Hrestoli Idealists allow a few folk magics, if they are taught by a trade guild. In practice a peasant will know one or two common magic spells to a low level, and his priest won't be too bothered by it. There are underground religions practiced all over the west involving isolated shamen and occasionally theistic priests with small groups of followers. Needless to say these are prime targets for the local Inquisition.

Horals, the Soldier Caste, are likewise limited in their magic. They will know only folk magic and receive blessings and sorcery from their chaplains.

Zzaburi, as noted above, will know real sorcery spells, and are often bound by oaths never to use folk magic, or are so hoity toity about the pathetic little charms of the peasantry they won't lower themselves to use them.

Talars, the Nobles, are also theoretically banned from using any magic, but again often do, knowing folk magic charms passed down through their ancestors. They will also have plenty of personal chaplains on hand to cast magic for them and, depending on the region and sect, possibly sorcerers and wizards in the household as well.

The Army of Tomorrow

The Army of Tomorrow first appeared in the first edition of Hero Wars published in 2000 as a Hero Band. My version is a smaller and less powerful organisation, less well established in Dragon Pass and more desperate for work. The Army is an irruption of the equivalent of the Earthly 14^th century into a Bronze or Iron Age cultural milieu, an alien and sorcerous blot on the tribal landscape.

Who are they?

The Army of Tomorrow turned up in Rhigos in Esrolia about five years ago. They are a band of mercenaries originally from Loskalm in the far north-west of the continent, a country about which the inhabitants of Dragon Pass know next to nothing. They do know that they have many sorcerers and few gods, and that makes them figures of deep suspicion.

The Army has sort of prospered however. They provide decent soldiers at a very reasonable price and they are ideal for disputes where Heortling chiefs, Esrolian grandmothers and Lunar officials do not want to risk their own troops and calling in the Humakti or Yelmalios looks like expensive overkill. The Army has found itself doing all the really crap military jobs in the area – patrolling the Praxian marches and caravan routes, hunting down those bands of undead that make it past the Ducks, dealing with plagues of starving trollkin. evicting refugee squatters displaced by Lunar conquests – stuff no honourable Humakti and many Lunar troops would want to do.

These are all reasonable earners, but they do nothing for the military reputation of the Army; jumped up garrison troops sniff the Lunar officers, a pack of stickpickers who can march in a line scoff the Sartarite thegns.

Sir Malain the Slayer, the leader of the Army's outpost at the Monastery of the Rock in Rhigos knows better. Back in the west Army troops have fought Wolf Pirates, meeping chaos horrors from the Dilis swamps and have seen service against the fearsome trolls of Guhan. He needs one big glorious victory to make his name and his units reputation known in Maniria, and then perhaps he will start getting some real money in, and some better quality recruits. The Army brought a hard core of veterans from their various outposts in the west and have been following their practice of local recruitment in the Holy Country, but there is only so much good old Fronelan drill and discipline can do with the motley tribal outlaws and urban proles who have been signing up.

The Army is entirely ecumenical, they take anyone of any religion and do not proselytise, or try not to, though they do rather obviously favour fellow monotheists as sergeants and captains and the colonels are all followers of the Church of the Futurist. If they have a real prejudice it is against non-human sentients, Krjalki as they call them. Back in Fronela and Seshnela these beings are few and far between and they find it disturbing to see humans happily associating with such horrors as trolls, ducks and merfolk. However the teachings of St Dadivic are open to all, and some chaplains are coming round the idea that these monsters might have souls and might even be able to experience Solace and Joy.

Organisation

The Army is organised into Columns, as they call their companies, each with a different role. Each column has a Colonel, a Chaplain and two Captains and ideally has eight 12 man squads.

First and Second : Basic infantry units equipped with spear and shield or pikes with falchion/shortsword for close up fighting, 20% of the unit will be crossbowmen.

Third: Galleys, where seamen receive training in Seamanship and marines use crossbows, boarding pikes and axes

Fourth: Light cavalry – spear and shield, light crossbow. This unit is somewhat under strength after a series of disastrous encounters with Grazelander raiders.

Fifth: Heavy cavalry using lance and shield. The traditional juggernauts of western warfare, but this column is way under strength due to lack of suitable recruits and decent warhorses.

Sixth: Sappers and Siegers; A bit of a novelty for this part of central Genertela, where sieges tend to be drawn out affairs occasionally livened up by magical assaults and flying Orlanthi fanatics. They have yet to see action, but Sir Malain and their colonel Sir Willebord are confident that they could knock over one the silly little hill forts they have in these parts in no time. A quarter of the troops have pavises and heavy crossbows, the rest are trained in building a few basic bits of siege equipment like battering rams, galleries and siege towers and they have carts with the great sinew springs needed for onagers and ballistas and plenty of woodworking tools. Sir Willebord also knows how to tunnel and undermine, but doubts the flimsy forts of Dragon Pass will need it.

Religion

Sergeants must follow a Malkioni Religion. The Army has sergeants from a number of sects but all the Chaplains are members of the Order of St Dadivic. The Army follows the western practice of the Chain of Veneration, where lay members give magical power and support to a Liturgist who then casts spells that benefit the whole congregation, as long as they bear a sanctified holy symbol.

The Captains of the columns are all members of the Order of St Dadivic and their Chaplain-General Lostar Spellster is a former adept of the Order of Bardan's Book, which gives him a number of useful battlefield spells.

The Order of Saint Dadivic, also known as the Church of the Futurist, originated in southern Loskalm during the Syndics Ban when the whole of Fronela and the Janube Valley was cut into isolated units by magical barriers of mist. The Order is open to anyone who worships the Invisible God, though all the major sects of the west regard it as heretical to some degree. The Hrestoli Idealists regard them as worshipping the Demiurge as they cleave to the Abiding Book, Hrestoli Orthodox decry them as Progressives and Feminists, who make a mockery of ancient Caste Law, and the Rokari dislike their Hrestolism and belief in Joy of the Heart.

Nonetheless the Army includes members all these sects and more. Monotheists are a mistrusted minority in the Holy Country and Dragon Pass and in the Army's view they have to put aside their theological squabbles and stick together in the face of rampant paganism, and even welcome some pagans into their ranks as tools to serve the Futurist.

The doctrines of the Great Futurist involve a great deal of optimism about the World to Come, which will finally realise the plans of the Invisible God and see the Perfection of Man, but recognises that along the way there is going to be a bit of an Armageddon to get through. The Army of Tomorrow will lead humanity through that great war and set an example of honourable action, perseverance and tolerance. St Dadivic left a collection of poetic prophesies, called The Glimpses, which the Chaplains consult whenever the path forward seems unclear. One such prophecy rather unequivocally pointed at Dragon Pass as a place the Order ought to take an interest in, but now they are here no one seems to know what to do next nor fully understand the mix of contending factions. Some doubt that the Armageddon is going to happen here at all, just a petty squabble between two gangs of stupid pagans, and want to go back to Loskalm to fight the Kingdom of War.

Special Blessings from the Grimoire 'Glimpses of the Future'

Heal Futurist

Heals 1 HP per 15% of the casters Grimoire skill, plus 1 HP per 15% of the recipients Grimoire skill. Cannot heal serious or major wounds.

Steadfast into the Future

Adds the 1/10 of the recipients Grimoire (Glimpses of the Future) skill to their Persistence and Resilience, an affects one target per 10% of the casters skill. Extra targets can be added by Manipulation as usual.

The Ship of Life

Acts as a Mobility spell for an entire galley, plus one movement rate per 25% Grimoire skill.

The Future is Ours

Acts as a mass Fate spell, adding 1/5 the targets Grimoire (Glimpses of the Future) skill to their next skill roll and affecting 1 target per 5% of the casters Grimoire skill. Extra targets can be added by Manipulation as usual.

Another Known Space NPC

This bloke has just wandered into my Known Space campaign. He's a bit of an arse.

Alpha Geek Omicron 1234 (Alec Lamplugh)

Homeworld: Scotland/EU/Earth, later Aquila/Aquila

Age: 39

Str:    7    +0

Dex   8    +0

End   10  +1

Int      11  +1

Edu   8    +0

SS    9    +1

Entertainer/Artist 5 terms, Rank 5

1 Found a patron, legendary punk artiste/label owner Harry Blackteeth (formerly of Bad McTatt and the Picts) +2 advancement

2 Criticise political leader – gain +1 in Investigate and an enemy

3 Gets a number one hit, +1 on any benefit roll

4 Need for more and more dubious implants leads into the criminal underworld, gain Streetwise

5 Become part of Aquila's celebrity circle, gain Persuade 1 due to ability to overawe the little people

Benefits – 160,000 Cr, 2 contacts, +2 Social, +1 Int

Skills

Persuade 0

Steward 0

Science (Cybernetics) 0

Art (Holography) 0

Carouse 0

Deception 1

Investigate 1

Persuade 1

Engineering (Electronic) 1

Computers 1

Streetwise 1

Art (Instrument) 4

Gear

Cybernetic implants – Cyber legs (advanced) Double speed, +2 to any athletics rolls involving legs

Enhanced Brain - + 1 Intelligence, computer interface, skill chip gives extra +1 Art (Instrument) skill

Radio Ears – pick up and transmit radio

Enhanced Eyes - general information chip, scleral surface veins rearranged in circuit board pattern to look Cybergothy

Moodaliser (as mood chip, but runs multiple programmes), with external surface update in the from of a glowing icon on his forehead

Cyberskin (+1 AP, resist cold/heat)

Depending on local law he will carry a monoblade and/or a laser pistol, though he has no idea how to use either properly and has a bodyguard for duffing over the disrespectful.

60% cybered, Sanity 0 (see Cybernetics notes)

Has a 200 ton yacht/tourbus, 'Ebonite Soul'.

Biography

Young Alec Lamplugh was Gothpunk Revival fan back in the 2280's (Gothpunk being the latest incarnation of Goth which had been revived every 50 years or so since the legendary Winter of Gloom of 1983, when hairspray supplies in Leeds were down to one half empty can and people made their own black lipstick with beef dripping and coal dust). He went on the local club circuit and was picked up by Harry Blackteeth, the front man for agit-thrash-celto-punk Bad McTatt and the Picts, who encouraged him in his latent obsession with cybernetics, turning him into a 'Cybergoth' and giving him the stage name 'Alpha Geek Omicron 1234'. 

Harry sensed that this distant, moody and nerdy young synth player needed only a bit of a kick to turn him into a proper rock and roll loon, reducing his career and probably lifespan but boosting his earning power. Alpha Geek Omicron was busted for being a wirehead (sending current directly into the pleasure centres of his brain), beating the rap by claiming it was the only way to control the weltschmerz and ennui brought on by inhabiting meatspace (well, Dundee). He led a failed campaign against the banning of mood chips in Scotland, though his fellow campaigners exposed the Scottish Home Secretary, Angus Davis, as using an Aggression Dial to up his vehemence levels during parliamentary debates ('Wee Angus goes up to 11' was one of Alpha Geek's biggest hits in his home country.)

He left Scotland and settled on Aquila, where though cybernetic enhancement was still banned, he was a bigger fish in a smaller pond, and became one of the planets biggest rock stars, going on interstellar tours back into the core sectors to play ever larger gigs and spend time at various dodgy and experimental clinics having yet more of his biological substance replaced by silicon, rubber and stainless steel.

Alpha Geek is an impressive looking bloke, seven feet tall (he has had the pale ginger Scottish legs he was born with replaced by springloaded metal ones a couple of feet longer), covered in black rubberised skin, with various bits of chrome stuck on in a rather obvious way, a big up yours to the many in Known Space who regard cyber enhancement as dangerous, uncool and very, very nerdy. He is also completely barmy, a manic depressive with more than a touch of megalomania, but a lot of people take this as side effects of being a rock star rather than of being mostly robotic. He leads a peculiar peripatetic life on his yacht/tour bus 'Ebonite Soul', sometimes arriving like royalty with full pomp and circumstance, other times slinking on and off a planet dressed head to foot in bandages like a burn victim. He spends a lot of his time in a sensory deprivation tank while a computer feed sends randomised signals to his moodaliser and records the resulting musical output from the synth and composition computer built into his brain and spinal column.

Every now and again he will spend some time 'dead', going into a low berth for way beyond the recommended time limits, as way of avoiding taxes and extending his lifespan. He has announced his intention to live forever several times and has (very expensively) downloaded a rough simulacrum of his personality into a number of computers he calls 'beta geeks'. He has sent beta geeks out to do gigs for him. He claims the performance was in fact better though several times when this has happened the audience demanded their money back.

He has a number of full time roadies, sycophants, cyberneticists and bodyguards who treat him as royalty, he might be be angling to become a cult leader of sorts. All his followers sport cyber enhancements, and unkind and paranoid types say he uses these to control his entourage.

He knows and can call on Harry Hurley, leader of the New Dorset Independence Party and current heir apparent to the Microsoft Corporate Kingdom (the CEOship has become hereditary since Microsoft became a constitutional monarchy in the revolution of 2216) Prince Louis Kimball-Gates XIV, who are both fans. (Note: The XIV is a serial number, the Kimball-Gates family clone themsleves then choose the sanest and least mutated to ascend the throne).

Aplha Geek is currently on tour and is stopping off at Annabel's Grave to organise the rescue of her poor misunderstood brain from the depths of a frozen sea.

More People of Known Space

A couple more of the funny folk of the 24th century.

Sultan Major Mikhail Al-Tazary

Homeworld: Orpheus/Aquila

Age 34

Str     9   +1

Dex   9   +1

End   7   +0

Int      2    -2

Edu   8   +0

SS    D  +2

Army/Infantry

Terms 4 Rank 03 Major

1 Life Event- Good Fortune, inherited father's title +2 to one benefit roll

2 Involved in the Orphean War, gained Gun Combat skill

3 More action in the Orphean War, injured, -2 DEX

4 Peacekeeping mission, gain Recon 1

Benefits: 32 000Cr, +2 Social, Armour

Skills

Animals 0

Comms 0

Drive (Wheeled) 0

Drive (Tracked) 0

Athletics (Strength) 0

Gun Combat (Slug Rfile) 1

Recon 1

Melee (Blades) 1

Heavy Weapons (Launcher) 1

Leadership 1

Tactics (Military) 1

Survival 1

Stealth 1

Languages: Kazakh 5, English 1, Arabic 1

Assets

Improved Flak Jacket (AP6), Ballistic Helmet (AP +1), Blade, Heavy Revolver, Assault Rifle

Biography:

Mikhail is from Orpheus, which was torn apart by a major war between the neo-Nazi state of Asgardia and the inhabitants of the rest of the planet. He was never the brightest of souls, a disappointment to his father, a prominent businessman who died when Mikhail was 19, giving him the old Kazhak title of 'Bay'. The Orphean War was a bloody nightmare, opened with a pre-emptive nuclear stake by the Asgardians. Mikhail did his bit, becoming battle hardened as the shattered armies of what become the Orphean League doggedly fought back over the irradiated wastes. Bolstered by supplies from the US and EU and an interplanetary volunteer force the League bottled up the Asgardians in a fortified corner of a minor continent. Mikhail's unit became part of a force occupying former Asgardian territories, a brutal job involving endlessly hunting down cells of Nazi diehards. He eventually became de facto ruler of the district, a military governor for the Orphean League government, and still has a lot of clout on his homeworld. He left home to do yet more Nazi hunting. He hasn't forgiven the bastards for nuking his hometown and knows some of the wretches have escaped their virtual prison state on Orpheus and they are probably plotting some kind of revenge.

Mikhail is a simple and brutal man, hardened by battle and used to having people jump and quake at his every word. Quite what the principles of the Orphean Humanist Party, in which he is apparently a Commissar, actually are he has no idea. All he knows is that he is a Sultan, a Major and basically the boss, and has a squad of battle hardened veterans who will extract information regarding the murderers of his people by any means necessary  And if tracking them down involves good old fashioned commando work, sneaking through the wilds and personally slitting their throats in the dark, so much the better. Mikhail is slowly dying of cancer, the legacy of the nuclear battlefield, and wants to take as many of the bastards with him as he can.

He has had a number of run ins with law enforcement on other worlds. They sympathise with his mission, but deplore his methods, though in a couple of places they have supplied information then looked the other way while his band of thugs disposed of some politically embarrassing people, some of whom might actually have been Asgardian Nazis.

Always travels with 2-7 infantrymen and usually hires of acquires the biggest, blackest, most badass looking armoured limo to cruise about in. He has Orphean League diplomatic documents, but these are out of date and it is debatable whether the current League government will take any responsibility for their kill crazy Commissar, though he usually manages to intimidate any real Orphean diplomats he comes across into giving money and arranging a meeting with local law enforcement and intelligence services.

Dr Laura Miles

Homeworld: Aquila/Aquila

Age 42

Str      9   +1

Dex    B  +1

End    2   -2

Int       8    +0

Edu    A   +1

SS      B  +1

Scholar/Physician

Terms 6 Rank 4

1 Made a breakthrough in gene therapy, +2 advancement

2 Attempted to fake a gene treatment on a rich client, lost advancement roll, 1 enemy

3 Advanced training course, but gained no skill

4 Did secret work in implant technology, gained Engineering (Electronics)

5 Did some dubious research into genetic engineering, gained in Genetics, Biology, gained a benefit roll, and 3 enemies

6 Got involved in a long drawn out legal case, gained Advocate 1

Benefits: 70 000Cr, Scientific Instruments, +3 Social

Skills

Animals 0

Carouse 0

Streetwise 0

Investigate 1

Life Science (Biology) 1

Comms 1

Computers 1

Diplomat 1

Engineer (Electronics) 1

Life Sciences (Zoology) 1

Advocate 1

Medic 3

Life Sciences (Genetics) 3

Assets

Mobile gene testing kit, heavy body pistol, Diplo vest (AP 3), Mutant ferret named Lulu, extensive wardrobe

Laura Miles is from the wealthy planet and sector capital Aquila. She started out well enough, finding a new surgical method for applying GM'd skin cells on burn patients, but fell into bad ways, joining Huntingdon Genetech, a private clinic that dabbled in some dodgy procedures for the right (rich) client. She faked a muscle boosting therapy for them injecting steroids, not gene modifying viroids and got caught out, earning her first enemy, a professional boxer on Aquila named Tessa MacGuire. Tessa was disqualified for drug use, but at least she kept the genetic treatment (even more illegal) quiet.

She briefly did a course in human genetic modification, but whole well educated she was no genius and gained little, except to restore her reputation somewhat. Laura worked on a modification that made nerve cells slightly easier to integrate into cyber-implants and then did an extensive project into using xeno-genes from certain alien life forms in human work. This skated so close to the edge of the law that she ended up spending years in court, and the enmity of the CEO of Huntingdon Genetech who she shopped as part of her defence, a Catholic Bishop who headed a campaign group against human gene mods and noted socialite and holo star Lucia Harley-Brown, one of whose children Laura had gene tweaked, which came out in the trial, much to her embarrassment.

She got off in the end, but finds herself cut off in mid career with no more wealthy private clients, no private clinic willing to take on a squealer and though there are some academic departments who would love to pick her brains, none that will give her so much as a lab assistant job. She loves the high life, and wears the most fashionable clothes she can afford that will still conceal the armoured Diplo vest she has taken to wearing, and she keeps a heavy body pistol in her designer handbag. She affects the manners and mannerisms of a B-list holo star, having hung out with (and treated) so many and been to so many fancy parties. People might find it hard to believe that this brassy, bossy, apparently shallow and ridiculously overdressed woman is in fact a real doctor and quite a talented surgeon.

She has a sizeable wad of cash put by and is now blasting through it wandering the space lanes looking for a suitably liberal and wealthy planet where she can set up shop. She had this lovely idea a few years back of creating and selling GM'd pets, mixing Earth species with some of the cuter xenofauna from the colony worlds. She has a prototype, Lulu, her ferret, which has attractive pink zebra stripes, whiskers fashioned after the irridescent antennae of a Aquilan Ground Moth and a long prehensile tail that mixes rat, spider monkey and Aquilan Jewelled Batsnake. It also has a concealed remote control explosive in its cranium and is trained to attack and hold onto a target on the word 'concatenation'. Lulu's sense of smell is extremely sensitive thanks to the moth antennae, and she can react badly to random odours, becoming happy or hostile almost at random, biting strangers or becoming besotted with them and biting them anyway. Laura is still working on a solution to this, and the intense ferret body odour, and in the meantime keeps spraying pricey French cologne at the poor beast. Well Lulu is only a prototype.