Black Dogs in Balazar

My last post was on the Barguests, the ghostly black dogs of Britain, and +PT on Google+ asked me do do a Runequest version.

It just so happens that I had already had the basics done, there being a lot of spooky dogs in Glorantha. They come in a wide variety of sizes; some are spirits, some are daimones there might even be essences that manifest as dogs.

In Balazar black dogs are usually nothing to be scared of. As I mentioned in the post back in August 2012 (http://expanduniver.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/dogs-in-balazar.html), there are a number of dog breeds with a variety of skills.

In Balazar it is extremely common for a shaman's fetch to manifest as a dog, but dogs can also be shamen in their own right. Dogs kept by Brother Dog shamen can become 'awakened' and achieve human levels of sentience, and even become heroes.

Awakened Dog

A dog that gets the maximum score in INT, POW and CHA is considered enlightened and among the approximate 1% of Gloranthan animals that can talk. It will gain a further 1d6 in each of these stats.

Balazaring Dogs will be Primitive, gaining 100 cultural skill points. They may take Folk Magic as an addition to the Primitive Professional Skill list.

Professions available are: Hunter, Physician, Scholar, Scout, Shaman, Thief, Warrior, and dogs owned by the White Goat clan have the option of being a Herder as well.

All Balazaring Dogs may spend Bonus skill points on Binding (Brother Dog Tradition) and Trance.

Awakened Dogs do not need to use fetishes, their spirits will inhabit their teeth, which will magically acquire tiny carvings when so inhabited.

Awakened Dogs who live independently of humans will spend their time caring for stray dogs and human children, and may help a tribesman who has become lost in the wilds. They also patrol the plains looking for creatures of chaos, and will band together in a pack to hunt them down, or seek out a human tribe to inform of the danger. They are often able to smell out criminals and will hunt down those who have murdered their kin. They gather on the perimeter of tribal camps to howl when a notably evil member of a tribe dies and will pursue and hunt down his spirit in the spirit world as it flees his body. They also gather to honour great shamen, and guard their mortal remains during sky burial, at least until the funerary rites to inter the naked bones in a burial mound.

Awakened dogs do not learn the skill Obey Orders, they may follow any order they have the language skill to understand of any complexity and quite frequently come up with plans and issue orders to the humans in their hunting party.

Spirit Cult of Brother Dog

Follower

Any Balazaring, human or dog, may be a follower of Brother Dog, and bind up to ¼ of their CHA in Dog Spirits. Being a member is simple, look after your own dog (if you are a human) or look after your own human (if you are a dog). May learn Train Dog or Obey Orders, Dogspeech and Speak Balazaring. Dogs are limited to INT+POW %age in Speak Balazaring unless they are awakened.

Spirit Worshipper

Must have 50% in five of the following skills: Train Dog, Obey Orders, Dogspeech (if a human) Speak Balazaring (if a dog), Survival, Athletics, Bite attack, Track by Scent, Endurance, Folk Magic, Binding (Brother Dog). They may bind up to half their CHA in dog spirits.

Shaman

Must have 70% in four skills which must include Binding (Brother Dog) and either Dogspeech or Speak Balazaring, depending on species. A Shaman may summon a Brother Dog fetch. This will always have Manifestation as one of its abilities, appearing as a dog. If it has the shape change ability in addition it will enable a dog shaman to temporarily appear as a human. They may bind up to ¾ of their CHA in Dog Spirits, and they may go on a spirit quest to bind one of the heroic powered spirits noted below.

High Shaman

A High Shaman needs 90% in three skills, one of which must be Binding (Brother Dog). A High Shaman may summon Dog Ancestor spirits, which can be bound into their living descendants to create Awakened Dogs. This is no easy task, as an ancestor powerful enough to do this is at least Intensity 4, and must be willing to lose a good part of its Power in order to become mortal again. They may bind all of the CHA in Dog Spirits.

Special Spirits of Brother Dog

These spirits may be found after quests into the spirit realm and bound there if the Shaman has the skill and the standing in the Brother Dog tradition. Most may be used by humans as well as dogs.

Detect Kinslayer, Intensity 4, Geas: Never let a kinsman down, dog or human.

This Truth rune spirit enables a shaman to detect the odour of guilt on a person who has slain a member of their own tribe. There is no obligation to take the person to task for this, though independent dog shamen often do.

Spirit Hunt, Intensity 4, Geas: Never let prey escape.

Makes Trance skill rolls one step easier when hunting down a specific spirit in the otherworld, enables the hunter to add their Trance critical range to their tracking skill as they can follow the prey's spiritual traces as well as is scent and can allow a spirit hunter to enter a trance and follow a trail as a disembodied spirit for up to 1km per point of POW. Linked to the Spirit rune.

Giant size, Intensity 2 + 2 per d6 SIZ+STR gain, Geas: Never obey a smaller creature or one with less CHA.

Can only be used by dogs, this spirit is linked to the Earth rune and enables them to grow to sizes comparable to or even larger than humans adding at least 1d6 to STR and SIZ and 1d3 to CHA. Dogs with this spirit become very assertive and will not obey anyone smaller than it is, regarding itself as a free agent and perhaps the master of any human it comes across.

Howl of Darkness, Intensity 4, Geas: Only hunt at night

This spirit is linked to the Darkness rune and makes the fur (or hair) of the shaman go jet black giving it +10% Stealth at night. It allows use of the Theist miracle Fear at an intensity equal to the Binding (Brother Dog)/10. At night the spell has +25% intensity, and if a pack of dogs joins in they add their Binding (Brother Dog) crit range to the intensity as well.

Eyes of Light, Intensity 3, Geas: Only hunt by day

This spirit is linked to the Sky rune and makes the fur (or hair) of the shaman go yellow. It enables the shaman to see twice as far with clarity by day, makes all visual perception rolls one step easier, and gives use of the Folk Magic power Witchsight at will for no mp cost. Only shamen descended from the Golden Legion of Balazar or one of their loyal guard dogs may use this spirit; roll (Cha+Pow+Str+10) or less to be such a descendant.

Telmor's Foe, Intensity 4, Geas: Never let a wolf escape

This spirit embodies Brother Dog's enmity for Telmor the Wolf. Dogs with this spirit develop a white patch somewhere on their body, since this is the colour of the sky spirits and this spirit is linked to the sky. The dog gains 4 AP vs any attack by a wolf or werewolf, reduces any dmage from attack by a wolf spirit by 4mp, may attack a wolf with its normal bite as if a magical weapon, may try and sniff out werewolves in human form using perception and gains one step easier in any task to track a wolf. Needless to say the Grey Wolf tribe of Balazar do not use this spirit, as its powers work equally well against their totem spirits. They insist that Telmor was Brother Dog's father and that Brother Dog spared the wolf after he and Foundchild hunted him down so as not to kill kin.

Two Stone spirit, Intensity 3, Geas: Hunt one reptile a month

This spirit is associated with the Storm rune and makes the fur or hair of the Shaman turn orange-red. The shaman becomes able to smell the winds and, if the wind is strong enough, tell what lies miles away upwind. The shaman also does once dice step greater bite damage to reptiles and dragonkind, any any bite against such a target has a chance of paralysing the location hit for one round. This manifests as sparks of lightning.

This spirits can only be gained by visiting the shrine at Two Stone and starting a quest from there into the frozen land of the hurricane giants of the Three Little Giant Mountains where gales mutter and curse forever through the canyons and glacier carved glens, resenting their banishment from the lowlands by Balazar.

Approaching Two Stone across Balazar's East Plain (Albert Bierstadt)

Two Stone

This sacred site is in the Brothers Hills, where the three sons of Balazar took refuge while their father went with the True Golden Horde to Dragon Pass to kill the Dragonewts. It consisted of three stones, one for each brother, but one, to the south, has fallen and shattered.

The ground within is marshy and wet and lies a couple of feet below the surrounding hill top. Above it is a permanent thundercloud, and the whole area feels tense with electricity, as if a thunderstorm is about to be unleashed. The area is closed off by carved wooden posts strung with painted bison hides to make a sacred enclosure, and is only entered by a wooden gateway to the west. Just outside this gate are a few stone beehive huts where two shamen and their families dwell, with an enclosure for a small herd of goats (the local White Goat clan are unusual in herding these animals), and shelters for a pack of red mastiffs.

The shamen warn people not to venture within the sacred enclosure beyond the stone step they have built just inside the gate. Those with Trance or Spirit Sight will be able to see why, a huge red mastiff paces beneath the ominous cloud and if anyone gets too close it will bark a warning and then savage the trespasser.

Legend has it that this spirit is Grozak, Balazar's own personal guard dog that he took to Dragon Pass with him, and the only Balazaring spirit to return from the Dragonkill war with news of the disaster. The stones represent Trilus, Elkoi and Dykene. Elkoi's is fallen; he was the first to fall out with his elder brother Trilus and was banished into the Elder Wilds, from whence he returned with a group of giants who built him a citadel of his own. The storm cloud represents the enmity of the three citadels, prophets say that when the storm finally breaks, Balazar will be plunged into its worst war yet, and when it clears there will be peace between the three citadels forever.

Scholars will note that the stones bear a remarkable resemblance to the Dragonewt plinths of Dragon Pass, though far more weathered and battered and miraculously one has actually broken; they are commonly thought to be indestructible. Getting close enough to confirm this with the bloody great dog there won't be easy though.

Grozak, huge Red Mastiff Wraith-Shaman

STR 48

CON 18

SIZ 35

DEX 10

INT 18

POW 42

CHA 12

AP 3 SR 14 Armour 3 points

Brawn 166%, Willpower 120%, Evade 20%, Endurance 128%, Howl 126%, Bite 116%, Binding (Brother Dog) 126%, Trance 128%, Perception 120%

Attacks

Spirit damage 1d8+1d6

Bite 1d10+2d8

Howl – Willpower save or flee in panic, Brawn or Evade save or fall over.

Spirits

Great Bite Intensity 4 Int 7 Pow 25, Dog Spirit, +20% Bite attack

Crusher Intensity 4 Int 5 Pow 30, Dog Spirit, Special Effect – Break weapon

Greyhound Intensity 4 Int 7 Pow 25, Dog Spirit, Boost Action Points +2

The Loper Intenisty 4 int 11, Pow 28, Cha 7, Guardian spirit, Spectral Combat 85%, Willpower 106%

Yipper Intensity 3 int 10, Pow 19, Cha 10, Guardian spirit, Spectral Combat 79%, Willpower 88%

Blaster Intensity 3 Wind elemental spirit

Howler Intensity 3 Wind Elemental spirit

Requires a magic weapon to affect in the same manner as a Wraith, and all wounds it causes are permanent and will not heal.

It has the abilities of a Two Stone Spirit – its bite damage is enhanced against reptiles and can paralyse and it can smell approaching enemies on the wind from almost anywhere in Balazar.

The Barguest, the Dog of War

The Devil Dog

I recently discovered that Woodhouse Moor in Leeds where I used to live was the haunt of a Barguest called the Padfoot. According to William Henderson's Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders (Folk Lore Society, London 1879), the Padfoot hunted the waste ground north of Leeds between Wreghorn (now called Wrangthorn) and Headingley Hill. Barguests are great ghostly dogs, and the Padfoot was supposed to be a big one – the size of a small donkey with black shaggy hair and glowing white eyes. Eyewitness Sally Dransfield saw it often, 'rolling along the ground before her, like a woolpack... sometimes vanishing suddenly through a hedge.'

The Barguest is the Dog of War, a supernatural black hound with great firey red or white glowing eyes which can sometimes walk on its hind legs and carry a double handed sword. In East Anglia the dog is called Black Shuck, in Devon they are the Wishthounds or the Yell Hounds, in Wales they are the Gwyllgi, and during the English Civil War they have been spotted everywhere. There is even a black dog haunting Newgate Prison, the ghost of a witch who was killed and eaten in 1596 by his starving fellow prisoners before he even came to trial. Blasphemers must beware of being turned into Barguests for their impiety.

They manifest in a number of different ways, usually at night. At the death of a notable person a Barguest may appear followed by a procession of local dogs to stand and howl over the corpse – the Padfoot of Leeds did this on occasion, and if anyone tried to stop if it would attack with its claw and inflict a wound that would never heal. The reason why a Barguest might choose to mourn a person is unknown – some reckon its is because they were a secret witch, others that the beast is sent by God to hunt down an evil soul that might otherwise escape Hell. 

The creature can predict death too. If you go to your door at night and find a Barguest laying across your threshold then someone resident in the house will die.

And then there are others which just lurk on the moors or even near towns. There's an infamous one that kills people in the snickets in the city of York, though they are more usually found in places like Troll's Gorge near Appletreewick in the Yorkshire Dales, or the hills beyond Skipton-in-Craven on the way to Saddleworth Moor.

Barguest (LotFP)

HD 4, AC 16, Att +6, Bite 1d8 and Claws 1d6, Morale 11, Move 360' running.

Saves: Paralyze 10, Poison Immune, Breath 14, Device 11, Magic 12

First attack may knock a target over (roll 1d6 plus Dex and Str bonuses vs 1d6 +6 for the Barguest, if you beat it you stay on your feet) and it will get +4 to attack a downed target with its bite next round. It will hold onto any target it bites and shake it in subsequent rounds for an automatic 1d6 damage (Save vs Paralyze to escape the dog's grip).

Special Features and abilities

Each Barguest is unique and will have 1d4 of the features described below; roll a d12 and do not re-roll duplicates:

1. Uses a two handed sword at Att+10 and doing 1d10+4 damage. How it manages to stand upright and wield a sword with the paws of a dog is anyone's guess, but it does it.
2. Incorporeal. Can walk through solid objects if it so wishes and is immune to ordinary weapons, though it tends to enter buildings through the corners rather than the walls. Enchanted, blessed and silver weapons do normal damage.
3. Blood curdling howl. All who hear must make an immediate morale check or save vs Paralyze or be shaken with fear, getting -1 on all skill rolls, -4 to hit and having a one in six chance of failing any attempt at spell casting due to gibbering in fear and the distraction of immanent painful death.
4. Can appear by day as a large but gaunt and unkempt wolfhound and those who have been friendly to the hound when it is in such form may be spared being mangled later. 
5. Has an alternate form of a tall headless man whose burning red eyes float in the space beneath his hat or helm and his collar. Will use an ordinary sword at Attack +10, 1d8+4, and will wear pikeman's armour for AC 16. If defeated he will disappear in a gout of black flame, reconstitute as a dog some distance off and flee into the night.
6. Has an alternate form of a small white cat. This creature will appear to be harmless until someone gets close enough to be jumped on and bitten.
7. Has a specific target. This hound is looking for the soul of a certain person who may or may not be in the party. Until the target is dead the Barguest will be Incorperal as above, afterwards it will be as vulnerable as it ever is.
8. Can command dogs. It may howl and summon 1d6 hounds of large size and 2d6 lesser dogs to come to its aid. In a moorland environment these may be wolves or foxes, in a town the dogs of local residents which will throw themselves at doors and brake chains to join the Barguest.
9. It is delivering a message. If not interfered with it will go to the house of someone recently killed in the wars or about to die violently and howl to inform the family of the death and then depart. It will not be hostile unless action is taken against it.
10. The hound is gigantic, roll 1d6, on a 1-5 it is the size of a donkey and has 6HD and does +1 damage, on a 6 it is the size of a horse, and has 8HD and does +2 damage. These larger forms run at 480' a round.
11. The claws of the beast cause wounds that will never heal. Anyone hit by the claws in course of a fight must save vs Paralysis or lose 1HP and 1 point of CON permanently. The injury can be cured with the 6^th level Cleric Spell Heal.
12. Lives in a transdimensional space that it can access at will by running into a solid object like a hedge or a tree. The space cannot be seen, but exists at a fixed point in mundane space and the Barguest can Dimension Door into and out of it as long as it is within 360 feet of it three times a day. Magic Users who can locate the spot may be able to open it if they know the spell Dimension Door and an additional ritual refinement of that spell, carving magic symbols onto a log and planting it in the ground and then getting a team or strong men to wrench it round like a capstan.

Secrets of the Barguests

Various scholars have tried to work out what these enigmatic monsters actually are and where they come from and why. Any, all or none of the following explanations may be true.

• They do not really exist at all. Battlefields attract a lot of stray dogs; soldiers dogs from the camp whose masters have died and wandering dogs attracted by the smell of carrion. During a war terrified people notice more and more savage dogs wandering the roads and build tall tales around them.
• There is a miasma caused by violence, an emotional stench that dogs pick up on and follow to hollows in the ground where it collects. A dog who smells too much of this miasma will become intoxicated and grow large and savage and dangerous. Men who inhale it become likewise; the wars have begot Barguests as soon as they have begun, they will soon spawn the kind of subhuman freebooters seen haunting the battlefields of the Holy Roman Empire these last twenty years.
• They are the devil's dogs, the offspring of Cerebus and the Crocotta of the east which speaks like a man, described by Strabo and Pliny. When man sins by slaying other men a Barguest slips loose from the chains forged for them by St Michael from the footfalls of cats, and they slink out of holes in the ground to prey upon the unwary and to serve those who serve the demons of war.
• They are Hyaenadonts and Arctotheres, long extinct creatures that lived in these lands long ago when it was joined to the mainland of Europe. They hunted our ancestors who huddled in hide tents and in caves to survive the never ending winter, they hunt us now thanks to foolish magicians who wantonly poke holes in reality and pull impossible things out of other times and other worlds.
• They are always with us, shadows that wait in the darkness between the worlds and are kept at bay by the light of reason. Now that light has been snuffed out and the dark madness of war is upon us they slink closer to the Sphere of Malkuth, to clothe their dark essence in brute corporeality.
• Blasphemers must beware lest they turn into black dogs either painfully while alive or as foul spirits excluded forever from heaven after death!
• They are the last lost hounds of the Wild Hunt that the Old Gods let loose in the world to track down sources of evil. We no longer pay respect to the Old Gods, therefore in their eyes we are become evil, as bad as the Romans who slew their last priests and enslaved their last worshippers. The dogs have returned, and seek the scent of the worst of the sinners. The Huntsmen will follow... listen for the Horns at twilight... 

Witchmarks (and some news)

I have written this thing for Lamentations of the Flame Princess called England Upturn'd; James Raggi says it will be ready to be published some time in the new year. (Lamentations blog link).

At the moment it's being edited, and then there will be layouts and illustrations and all that jazz to be sorted, which I am really glad that James is handling – I used to be an editor myself and I know what a pain the jaxie coordinating that kind of stuff can be and I doubt I have the patience and eye for detail for it anymore.

England Upturn'd is set in the English Civil War – I blogged about it here, here and here. I tried to use the DCC ruleset, but I regretted it and was on the point of jacking it in and switching to LotFP anyway when James got in touch and asked me about taking over a project to write an ECW sandbox. DCC is a great game, don't get me wrong, but it is a zillion times more complicated to write magic for than a retroclone like LotFP, and what I had in mind involved a lot of spells.

So while all the proper professional publishing malarkey is happening here are few more odds and ends about the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. (The term 'English Civil War' is a gross and Anglocentric simplification of the complex and bloody goings on in the British Isles between 1639 and 1653, but I guess I'll have to keep using it as it is the one everyone has heard of.)

Witchmarks

Under the floorboards of Knowle House (Gareth Fuller/PA)

James I and VI of England and Scotland stayed at Knowle House in 1605. He had recently survived the infamous Gunpowder Plot, where Guy Fawkes and a group of Catholic plotters had tried to blow him and parliament sky high. It has recently been discovered that the inhabitants of Knowle tired to make the house witch-proof by carving marks into the joists under the floor boards. (News Link).

Witchmarks like these are actually quite common in 17^th century and older buildings, unobtrusively scratched into the wood to keep evil spells at bay.

In the fantasy ECW Witchmark is a 3^rd Level Magic User spell, that can also be used as a 3^rd Level Cleric spell by Catholic priests only.

Witchmark

Magic User level 3, Cleric level 3

Duration: One year per level or until destroyed

Range: Touch

The caster scratches a pattern of V and M shapes, or of overlapping circles or criss-cross mazes or nets into a piece of wood that is part of the fabric of a building, each mark having a different effect. It can be on a door, a joist, a floorboard, a window frame, anything, though it is usually advisable to cast it somewhere that isn't immediately visible. It can also be cast quickly with a bit of chalk.

The mark will affect a Magic User, undead or disembodied spirit that passes line it defends, causing the victim to stop in their tracks as if hit by a Force of Forbidment spell. It may defend up to a ten foot width of portal, passage or (where you are worried about incorporeal ghosts and demons) wall.

It will also enable any object it is marked on (and this will include entire buildings) to gain a +2 to their save vs destructive magic such as Fireball.

• The V and M shapes invoke the Virgin Mary and will repel undead, effectively casting a Turn Undead spell on any such being passing the line. A Magic User using this form will have the same effect as a level 1 Cleric or as a level 2 Cleric if he is a Roman Catholic. Clerics have half their level in effect. Intelligent and corporeal undead may save vs Spells and if they succeed may deface the Witchmark and dispel it; if they fail they may not even look upon the mark.

• The overlapping circles will repel Magic Users. A Magic User may make a save vs Magical Device to pass. If they fail the save they may use their Search Skill at + 1 per 2 Magic User levels to locate the Witchmark, and if they can deface it by scratching across it with an enchanted or silver implement they can permanently dispel it. If drawn in chalk it is simplicity itself to deface by splashing water on it, or even urinating on it.

• The net and maze shapes act against summoned demons, witches familiars, homunculi and other such possessed and otherworldly creatures. They are fatally obsessed by the intricacies of the pattern and will hover over it tracing the maze out unable to pass it by. The creature must save vs Magical Device at a penalty equal to the caster's level, but may add its Intelligence and Wisdom bonuses if it has any. The creature is rooted to the spot, but may still attack physically and by magic if any target presents itself, and may of course be attacked.

If the demon is made from some outré substance such as dream stuff, shadow, flowing colours, etc then it fades into and inhabits the mark as if it was a real maze. In this case no body is left in the real world to attack, but the demon can still attack anything that gets too close to its new home. Some kind of magical ritual may be necessary to dismiss the demon; the magician may open a portal to the pocket dimension of the Mark and pursue and slay the demon in the maze he has created for it; you may be able to extract the piece of wood from the building and either bury it or burn it, damaging the demon before releasing it. Or you may just abandon the building as irredeemably haunted and tainted until the Witchmark loses it's potency in several years time and hope some bunch of hapless adventurers has stumbled on and slain the vengeful demon in the interim.

That's a pretty long spell description as it is, can you imagine the tables it would take to do it in DCC with all the tables and gradations of effect?

The RPSS Endeavour

I can't draw for toffee, so I decided to borrow a pic from a computer game and design a Traveller starship to fit it. 

The RPSS Endeavour
(actually the Arcova Scout Frigate from Sins of a Solar Empire)

So here is the Royal Planetological Society Starship Endeavour

PDF with deckplans and description here.

Adventure Hooks

• The RPSS Beagle III is a national monument of the colony of New Dorset on the planet Aquila, it being the ship which made the first landing on the planet and which established the English claim to colonise it, beating the EU by three months. Marc Ducaille, a proud citizen of Merovin, the Francophone colony on Aquila, says it is all fishy - if you look at the flight plan of the Beagle III back in 2131 the only way they could have made it to Aquila before the EU expedition was if they somehow magicked up a Warp 4 engine. Marc insists the perfidious English had help, alien help... Most of the gubbins of the vessel are gone now, but if you look at these rather fuzzy lidar images surreptitiously taken while on a guided tour of the vessel you will see a strange pyramidal hole where the warp drive ought to be. No human warp engine has a component that shape, so what the hell was it, eh? 

• Chad Baxter, a military advisor to the Orphean League army, used to be in a certain agency - he can't tell you which or he'd have to kill you - and he knows that not all the rackety old Endeavours travelling the spaceways are what they seem. A vessel with that kind of deep space endurance, that kind of 'Astronomy' gear, built by an English academic organisation which, like all such organisations, was riddled top to bottom with commies? Come on, it's a spyship, was meant to be one from the day it was built! Look out next time you are heading off to a warp point, you might see an Endeavour class floating innocuously in deep space with its solar panel out for a second or two, then poof! the ECMs kick in and its gone.

• Szilard Geologic are a new commercial scouting company doing rather well. They started out with a second or maybe third or fourth hand Endeavour and it's been a real lucky charm for them, taking them from one mineral rich planet to another, gold, uranium, thorium, you name it, their little scout the 'Ethelred Bennett' has found them all. Rumour has it that they were on the point of going bust until they did a refit of the vessel. What did they find stuck in its innards? A lost database of planets? A dowsing rod? Who owned it before them? Jack Szilard worked in salvage for a while, is it a reconditioned wreck?

• The English Royal family are a dull lot. It is the tradition that the princes join the armed forces, usually the Navy since it is probably the safest, and they have been doing the same thing for a good four hundred years or more. Except one, Princess Frances, has bucked the trend by a) having a brain and doing well at university without anyone having to pull strings and award her an honorary degree; b) joining the services despite being female and by tradition being limited to showjumping as a hobby and c) saying nuts to the Navy and joining the Royal Planetological Society instead. She is out there somewhere beyond the edge of Known Space and a leak has revealed that she is flying an Endeavour. What do you do with this information?

• While delivering supplies to a forlorn mining outpost on Torch a battered old slave miner tries to sell you a bit of electronic junk. It's a survey drone, a real old one with an RPSS logo. Where is the vessel that launched it? Wrecked out there in Torch's utterly unforgiving deserts? Could there be evidence that the English have a prior claim on the planet? Or data about an undiscovered gold mine? Or even the location of the fabled haven of the 'Torch' itself?

Driders and Nightgaunts

In a recent session of my ongoing Griffin Mountain game (though its been stuck in Dragon Pass for a good while now) the party made a bit of a nause up of a heroquest, and Tarndisi is now deceased.

The story is that the party got lost whole crossing the Colymar Wilds and ended up crossing over to the Otherowlrd. Since they included a couple of members of the Order of Black Arkat, they inadvertently got recruited into a failed/stalled heroquest by an troll follower of Arkat who was trying to snuff out one of the last Aldryami strongholds in Dragon Pass. They duly reassembled old Zorak Kang, who had been chopped into little bits by Babeester Gor while trying to steal her axe, and then belatedly balked at the idea of letting him marmalise Tarndisi. After one of the PCs got his head chopped off by the irate troll they ran off and let him do the deed, escaping the hero plane at the Wild Temple.

So Tarndisi's Grove was overwhelmed by Trolls at the start of the Second Age. Trolls took over the land between the Thunder Hills and Starfire Ridges. They became followers of the EWF, worshipping the Black Dragon and they got involved in some of the dodgy biological experiments taking place at the Zoo, as Cragspider wanted to use the EWF magic to reverse the curse of kin. Cragspider is just one of a race of troll-spider-centaurs, the Driders, and she helped create the Nightgaunts as well.

During the Dragonkill War the Temple of the Black Dragon (which included monasteries of Humakt the Claw and Zorakan the Talon) which occupied the site of Tarndisi's Grove was destroyed, and Cragspider decamped to Cliffhome.

The Colymar Wilds are a fungus forest surrounding a ruined EWF temple and a pool called the Blackmere sacred to the Night Hag, a spirit associated with Xentha goddess of Night, and with whom King Colymar negotiated the terms of his settlement in Dragon Pass. The Night Hag can manifest as an ominous black granite monolith shot through with web-like veins of quartz, as well as a Mistress Race Troll or a hooded human female.

The wilds are inhabited by Voralans, giant spiders, Driders and the ruins of the temple have a colony of Nightgaunts. Trolls are frequently found here on pilgrimage to pay their respects to the hero Zorak Kang and the Black Dragon.

Driders

A Drider has the upper body of a female dark troll on the torso of a giant spider. They mate with dark troll males and eat them in the process. They are unfortunately not immune to the curse of kin, and most Driders are puny half trollkin creatures, hungry little brigands who set traps for the unwary. Driders worship Aranea and Arachne Solara, though some use sorcery derived from the Lead Grimoire of Black Arkat and a few are shamen following the night spirits of Xentha.

The full size Dark Driders are solitary creatures but can be found in small groups in the (reformed) Colymar Wilds, Beast Valley and the Black Dragon Mountains, usually accompanied by bands of Drider-kin. The puny drider-kin habitually live in packs as they couldn't survive nay other way, and are sometimes found as pets in the lairs of Trolls in Halikiv and Dagori Inkarth. They are very dangerous in numbers, as their sticky webs, though weak, will immobilise a warrior if enough are used.

They are famed weavers and make marvellous cloths of their own silk which they dye black with the tincture of the night sky itself and can weave darkness and cold spirits into the weft. The lead weights they use at their looms are prized among human craftsmen. They demand wood from the scared trees of the Aldryami to make their looms in payment.

Dark Drider

STR 3d6+6 (16-17)

CON 3d6+6 (16-17)

SIZ 4d6+9 (25)

INT 2d6+6 (13)

POW 2d6+6 (13)

DEX 2d6+6 (13)

CHA 3d6+3 (13-14)

AP 3 Dam +1d8 SR 13

D20 Hit Location AP/HP

1          Right Hind Leg      3/6

2           Right Centre Leg  3/6

3-4        Right Front Leg    3/6

5           Left Hind Leg       3/6

6           Left Centre Leg   3/6

7-8        Left Front Leg     3/6

9-10      Abdomen            3/9

11-12    Thorax                3/9

13-14    Chest                  1/9

15-16    Right Arm           1/7

17-18    Left Arm               1/7

19-20    Head                   1/8

Typical Skills:

Acrobatics STR+DEX+50, Athletics STR+DEX + 30, Brawn STR + SIZ, Dance DEX+CHA+20, Endurance CON x3, Evade DEX x3, Influence CHAx4, Willpower POWx4, Folk Magic (INT+POW) x3, Devotion (Aranea) POW+CHA, Exhort (Aranea) INT+CHA, Craft (Weaving) DEX+INT +50%

Combat: 
Troll Militia STR+DEX (Excellent Footwork, Club, Mace, Maul, Spear, Sling Medium Shield); Drider Webbing STR+DEX+20 (Mancatcher, Web, Grapple, Bite)

Weapons

Mace M 1d8+1d8 6/6 Bash, Stun Location

Short Spear M !d8+1-1d2 Impale

Round Shield L 1d3+1+1d8 4/9 Bash, Ranged Parry, Blocks 3 locs.

Web L Entangles Web STR = Drider's STRx2

Bite S 1d3+1d8 Venom, potency CONx2

Drider Venom

Type: Ingested or smeared

Delay: 1D3 Combat Rounds

Potency: Drider’s CON x 2

Full Effect: 1D3 hit point damage to location struck, applies –1d6 penalty to victim’s DEX (upon reaching 0

DEX victim becomes paralysed)

Duration: 6D10 minutes

Typical Spells:

Folk – Bludgeon, Demoralise, Darkness, Chill, Extinguish

Divine – Shield, Absroption, Fear, Cult specials – Carapace (inc natural armour and extends it over trollish part of the body), Spiderlimbs (increases climb skill and confers immunity to webs), Spiderbite (Truns head into a spider head, increases bite dmaage to 1d8, doubles poison potency and gves bite an impale special effect).

Drider-kin

STR 2d6 (7)

CON 2d6+6 (13)

SIZ 2d6+3 (10)

INT 2d6+3 (10)

POW 3d6 (10-11)

DEX 3d6+3 (13-14)

CHA 2d6 (7)

AP 2 Dam -1d2 SR 11

D20 Hit Location AP/HP

1           Right Hind Leg 1/6

2           Right Centre Leg 1/6

3-4        Right Front Leg 1/6

5           Left Hind Leg 1/6

6           Left Centre Leg 1/6

7-8        Left Front Leg 1/6

9-10      Abdomen 1/9

11-12    Thorax 1/9

13-14    Chest 1/9

15-16    Right Arm 1/7

17-18    Left Arm 1/7

19-20    Head 1/7

Typical Skills:

Acrobatics STR+DEX+50, Athletics STR+DEX + 50, Brawn STR + SIZ, Endurance CON x2, Evade DEX x 5, Stealth DEX x3,Willpower POWx2, Folk Magic INT+POW

Combat: 
Troll Militia STR+DEX (Excellent Footwork, Club, Mace, Maul, Spear, Sling Medium Shield); Drider Webbing STR+DEX+20 (Mancatcher, Web, Grapple, Bite)

Weapons

Club M 1d6-1d2 4/4 Bash, Stun Location

Round Shield L 1d3+1-1d2 4/9 Bash, Ranged Parry, Blocks 3 locs.

Web L Entangles Web STR = Drider's STR x 2

Bite S 1d3-1d2 Venom Potency CONx1

Typical Spells:

Folk – Bludgeon, Demoralise, Darkness, Chill, Extinguish

Nightgaunts

These horrible little monsters were stitched together to serve the Black Dragon as scouts and aerial infantry. They are about the size of a trollkin, maybe a little smaller, with soft moth-like wings, compound eyes and feathery antennae on a thin troll-like body. They are not particularly intelligent, but can use stone spears. They have a nest in the ruins of the Temple of the Black Dragon and conduct a never ending war with the Wasp riders. They allegedly keep the mystical tradition of the Night Dragon going, and a few have been seen sporting scales and claws.

Their combat tactics involve swoops whispering dread curses to Demoralise the enemy, then hurling javelins from above to thin the ranks, bolas to stop any escapes and then moving in with the long spear as a last resort. Their soft wings make them very hard to hear in the dark, and on moonless nights they will flutter down unnoticed beside sentries and garotte them. They cut off the skin of the face and wear it as a gruesome mask, and cut out the tongue and make a charm that enables them to copy a persons voice.

They derive great pleasure out of causing fear and confusion and will be happy to kill only a couple out of a large group as long as the rest are duly terrified. If they are feeling lenient they may let travellers pass in return for leaving them the head of a giant wasp or wasp rider, their old enemies. If they are in a less forgiving mood they will sneak into camp and paint a darkness rune on someone's forehead, and give the party the chance to sacrifice the Nightgaunt's selected victim in return for free passage. If the sacrifice is not given freely then they will take it and 1d3 more victims besides.

They live in the ruins of the Temple of the Black Dragon and anyone approaching it will have to deal with them one way or another. They do not like bright sunlight however, and will stay hidden during the day.

Nightgaunt

STR 2d6+3 (10)

CON 2d6+6 (13)

SIZ 2d4+4 (9)

INT 2d6+3 (10)

POW 2d6+6 (13)

DEX 2d6+12 (19)

CHA 2d6+1 (8)

AP 3 Dam -1d2 SR 15

D20 Hit Location AP/HP
1-2 Right Leg –/5
3-4 Left Leg –/5
5-6 Abdomen –/6
7-9 Chest –/7
10-12 Right Arm –/4
13-14 Left Arm –/4
15-16 Right Wing 2/4
17-18 Left Wing 2/4
19-20 Head –/5

Typical Skills:

Athletics STR+DEX+70, Brawn STR+SIZ, Evade DEX x 5, Endurance CONx3, Stealth DEX x 6, Willpower POWx2, Folk Magic INT+POW

Combat: 
Aerial Scout (Skirmishing, Javelin with Atlatl, Sling, Bolas, Spear, Dagger, Garotte)

Javelin H 1d8+1-1d2 3/8 Impale

2H Spear L 1d10+1-1d2 4/10 Impale

Bolas - 1d4-1d2 2/2 Entangle

Garotte S 1d2-1d2 ½ Stealth

Typical Spells:

Demoralise, Darkness, Chill, Extinguish, Speedart, Ventriloquism, Curse

The ESA Starbus

The ESA Starbus is a little 200 ton trading vessel from my Known Space setting.

The ESA Starbus sans modules.
For more details see the PDF here

The Starbus is modular with two 50 ton modules which can be type P (Passenger), type C (Cargo), type L (Long Haul) or type K (Low Berth).

Adventure Hooks

• An engineer told us that Azania Lines runs a Starbus in LL configuration giving it 8 weeks extra in warp, that's 16 parsecs travel. Why? What the hell are they taking where? This one is worth keeping an eye on.

• Sergei Veretski, a Starbus pilot, finally lost it last trip, attacking the blasted autopilot with an axe and smashing the Avionics computer to bits. The AI was using a voice/personality based on Jason Pellegrino, a noted Belgian comic actor of the 22nd century and maybe the endless fart gags got too much for poor old Sergei. But after his death Pellegrino was found to have a collection of rather dubious books and to have been involved in the occult, and the raving and gibbering Sergei did mention something about having a spell cast on him and was found to have lined his pilots helmet with tinfoil. Something weird is going on here, but Aquila Spaceways want their ship back out earning money right now and there isn't time to investigate on the ground.

• The Ekaterina has always been a popular ship with the rich and fast living student party set travelling back and forth between Aquila and the university world of Fargen. There are some scandalous parties on that ship, it's a favourite of the gossip columnists, but something happened on the last trip, something people aren't talking about. One of the Stewardbots has gone missing, and the owners, Aquila Spaceways, have had the autodoc replaced.

• Nice ship the Starbus, very comfortable (for the passengers), very reliable, and sadly very vulnerable to pirates as some poor SOBs have found out on a trip to Kanaloa. There are ransom demands from the Free Akrotiri Front or people start getting thrown out of the airlock. It's parked on an asteroid in the outer orbit of the system gas giant and guarded by a gunboat, but there might be a way to get in through a cargo hatch if you can persuade the AI chip to play ball. It's modeled on some late twentieth century British celebrity called Alan Sugar, will that help?

Kolat

Another adaptation of an old(ish) cult for RQ6, since one of my players in Griffin Mountain had his PC come to a sticky end during a Heroquest and would like his new character to be a Kolating Shaman. There have been a few write-ups of Kolat for Heroquest and one for RQ3; I am going to be mostly following the Sartar Companion version.

Who is Kolat?

He is a son of Umath and a member of the Storm Tribe, and defended the Vingkotlings against the onslaught of spirits that sought to drive the Gods out of the world, defeated Zzabur the Sorcerer who preyed upon the Vingkotlings after their chief gods left on the Lightbringers Quest and slew Karkajan the Monster Shaman.

Who worships him?

Oddballs. The Orlanthi are a settled agricultural people for the most part with a powerful pantheon of gods and hierarchy of kings, chieftains and priests. But there are always malcontents and wanderers and people who feel the climb up the greasy pole of tribal politics isn't worth the candle and want another kind of power, some have odd dreams, some are driven out by misfortune and injustice. Then there are other people who never did fit in with Orlanthi culture; in Sartar some families never found a place among the colonising clans and tribes and remained stickpickers on the margins of the wildlands, tramps and charcoal burners holding to an ancient hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

The typical Kolating holds no allegiance to any family, clan or tribe. He wanders the land living rough and trading his unique talents for dealing with spirits with the settled farmers. Kolatings have a reputation for being conmen and thieves, but the Orlanthi are habitually distrusting of any strangers not part of their clan. They at least accept Kolatings as part of Heortling culture and deserving of some traditional hospitality, even if it is sometimes even more grudging than that given to Tricksters.

Where is he worshipped?

He is worshipped in Heortland, the Rightarm Islands, Maniria, Dragon Pass, Ralios, all through the Lunar Provinces and Talastar, Fronela and the North West and even in Pent. He may be more widely worshipped geographically than Orlanth himself, though across most if this area his is a very minor cult. But in primitive Brolia he is the most important member of the Storm Tribe, and in the most Lunarised parts of Vanch, Holay and Sylila he is the last remnant of the storm still worshipped since Orlanth worship has completely died out.

The secondary traditions a Kolating has access to will differ throughout this range. The ones given here are found in Dragon Pass, Maniria and Tarsh; in Pent Kolat is a minor tradition kept up by shamen dedicated to Kargzant.

Common Members

Quite a few Heortling people have a basic understanding of spirits, many clans have at least one person who has a touch of the 'Second Sight' and some Binding or Trance skill, often following the Earth Witch tradition, but sometimes the Kolat Seven Winds instead or as well. They will have knowledge of Find Spirit, Spirit Shield or Witchsight. They will usually be followers of a theistic cult as well. They can bind up to ¼ of their Cha in spells, but if they have theistic magic this will be reduced by 2 spirits per Divine Miracle known, and the number of Miracles will be reduced by 2 per spirit held.

The wandering shamen have little respect for these settled types though, regarding them as mere dabblers, unless they are willing to accompany them as apprentices.

Spirit Worshipper

These members are usually found as apprentices to the wandering Kolatings. They can actually bind spirits, up to half of their CHA, but must take a Seven Winds spirit with its attendant geas as their first spirit.

They must have 50% Trance and 50% Binding (Seven Winds Spirit), and need 50% in three of the following skills: Insight, Locale, Willpower, Lore (Seven Winds), Survival , First Aid, Sing, Healing, Binding (Secondary Tradition), Deceit, Sleight.

If they are sworn as a shaman's apprentice then they need not pay for any training, but are required to accompany him and give him a share of any fees earned for using shamanic skills. If not, they can gain a place by the fire and hospitality at any shaman's encampment, but there is no obligation to feed them. They can request training, and will be asked to pay half the usual costs.

Shaman

Shamen can bind up to three quarters of their Cha worth of spirits, one of which must be a Seven Winds spirit, one must be from a secondary tradition and one of which may be a Fetch. They may bind a Guardian Spirit, which confers greater protection from hostile magic, and bind Air Elemental Spirits (see Seven Winds tradition below).

They must have 70% Binding (Seven Winds), 70% Trance and 70% in two skills from Insight, Locale, Willpower, Lore (Seven Winds) Survival, Binding (Secondary Tradition), Lore (Secondary Tradition). The minimum Binding (Secondary Tradition) skill must be 35%.

The Fetch of a Kolating must have the following traits:

Autonomy – it can travel wherever the wind goes.

Elemental – it can manifest in the physical world as a Sylph.

If it has Manifest it can also appear as an eagle, and if it has Shapechange it is able to turn the Shaman temporarily into an eagle.

When rolling for the traits of a Kolating Fetch one trait must come from the following set.

1. Hot wind – can act as a Warmth folk magic spell without spending any MP, can cast Heat for 1 mp, and can add its POW as a %age to any attempt to oppose a cold, ice or darkness spirit
2. Cold wind – can act as a Cool Folk Magic spell without spending any mp, cast Chill for 1 mp, and can add its POW as a %age to any attempt to oppose a heat or fire spirit
3. Howling wind – can cast Demoralise on as many targets as fit within it for just 1mp the lot.
4. Hunting spirit – can hunt down one of the six foes; the undead, the possessed, death spirits, disease spirits and curse spirits sent by women, gains a Spirit Tracking skill of 50%+Int+Pow
5. Hunting spirit – can hunt down one specific type of animal using its own tracking skill or enhancing that of the shaman, Track Animal 50%+Int +Cha
6. Blow away foes – when attacked by multiple spirits the shaman can choose to have his fetch keep all but the strongest at bay with its winds. Willpower vs Willpower of the attacking spirits for this to work.
7. Lightning – can use Disruption for 1 mp, and can target as many people as fit within it as an elemental for 1mp each.
8. Thunderous Voice – enables the Shaman to use the folk magic Voice whenever he feels like it, and can make rolls on Influence, Oratory or Sing one step easier for 2 mp, at least when dealing with other Storm worshippers; others might ask who the shouting, bragging lunatic thinks he is.

High Shaman

Can bind his entire Cha in spirits, and need 90% in one Binding skill (any tradition, not necessarily Seven Winds), 90% Trance and one of; Lore (any Tradition), Insight, Willpower.

High Shamen are respected and feared, and are often cantankerous and eccentric from having to follow the geases of so many spirits. All can command and use Seven Winds spirits, but some specialise in the lesser traditions; Chalk Man shamen are earthy and apparently good humoured, eager for a game of gambling sticks and highly likely to tell you tall tales and try and con you, Oakfed shamen are often hot tempered, Night Listeners dress in black and are alert and penetrating, Serkos shaman are loners. Those few shamen who favour Granny Vo and Uncle are like men from another country, dressed in furs, carrying stone knives full of strange oaths and are often rude.

Spirit Lord

There is a Spirit Lord of Kolat out there up on one of the sacred mountains but no one knows who he is or where he is. Kolating shamen tend to travel a lot, it is entirely possible that he is the scruffy skin clad old man selling charcoal to the bronzesmith over there, is hiding behind that looming stormcloud over there or is sitting in a trance on the peak of Kero Fin hunting through the spirit world looking for the pernicious shamen of Jakaleel as they seek to capture and convert the spirits of the Orlanthi dead.

The Seven Winds Tradition

There are six varieties of spirits that this tradition can call on, and a Shaman can never have more than one of each kind. They are Nature spirits in RQ6, and usually augment skills and boost attributes or cast enhanced versions of Folk Magic.

Before Me. Provide charms relating to the wind, such as enhancing knowledge of the weather, using small winds to move things, sending messages via the winds, using wind to help arrows fly etc. Taboo: Never Commit Adultery. For example: Spirit casts Mindspeech spell with a range of 5xPOW in meters, a tiny breath of wind taking the Shaman's words and whispering them to the target, each point of intensity of spirit can increase range or increase number of recipients.

On My Right. Provide charms relating to cold weather, such as increasing Endurance against cold, helping the shaman survive and find food in the cold, combating fire spirits, causing frostbite and so on. Taboo: Must Tend Oak Trees. For example make Endurance rolls one step easier in cold weather

Behind Me. Provide charms that can change the weather. Taboo:Rise Early From Sleep. For example increase cloud cover over one square kilometre per intensity, can block out the light of the moon or weaken the sun.

On My Left. Water Spirits that counter spirit attacks. Taboo: Never Drink Alcohol. For example: Provide one 'spirit armour' per point of intensity to reduce mp loss during spirit combat or make Binding skill rolls half a grade easier per intensity when fighting off hostile spirit attacks.

Above Me. Fire spirits that defend against magic, track spirit magic back to the caster, or rebound spirit magic. Taboo: Must Sleep under the Sky. For example: If the shaman resists a spell equal to the intensity of the spirit or under it is reflected back at the person who cast it, at a cost of 1mp to the spirit, or make all rolls to resist a spell half a grade easier.

Below Me. Darkness spirits that fight one or more of the Six Foes; corporeal undead, the possessed, spirits of death, spirits of disease and curses sent by women, Taboo: Never Kill. Example; Add two steps in weapon damage vs Skeletons and Zombies, or make all rolls to resist hostile magic cast by women one grade easier.

The seventh wind is Within Me, and is in fact the Shaman's fetch, which enables the shaman to embody it as an Elemental spirit.

Once a person has become a shaman, the Before Me, On My Right and Behind Me spirits may be replaced by Elemental spirits that not only have the powers noted above but which can be released to fight as Elementals, but not embodied. The On My Left, Above Me and Below Me spirits can be replaced by Guardian Spirits with slightly limited abilities (ie On My Left only attacks spirits, Above Me only intercepts spells, Below Me can do either, but only against certain foes).

Shamen with the Seven Winds tradition can learn and teach a number of useful folk magic spells such as Avert, Frostbite, Chill, Cool, Heat, Shove, Speedart, Spiritshield, Voice and Witchsight

Chalk Man Tradition

The Chalk Man is a great Earth spirit who aided Kolat many times, rescuing him from Karkajan with the aid of his gambling sticks. Chalk Man lives under a hill in northern Dragon Pass, marked with his outline. The Chalk Man binding skill can be used as a Gambling skill when playing the gambling stick game, and used to help bind spirits of other traditions if the shaman can persuade them into playing. His spirits are nature spirits with a variety of odd powers, and again only one from each category may be taken at any one time. In ancient times there were shamen who followed Chalk Man alone and had Chalk Man give them fetches, but no one now knows how that is done. Going into the cave in the Chalk Man hill looks like an obvious route for research, but no one is quite brave enough to try.

Might and Vigour folk magic spells are taught by Chalk Man spirits.

Oakfed tradition

Also followed in Prax, Oakfed spirits can only be bound in the depths of winter, and anyone with one of these spirits cannot also have an On My Right Spirit from the Seven Winds tradition, and will be regarded by the Aldryami as hostile. These spirits can burn anything, and shamen can even bind one that will burn away spiritual impurities.

Night Listener

A darkness spirit also worshipped by Trolls, which wake men in the night if they are threatened by intruders (or in the day for troll worshippers), or attack intruders. The folk magic Alarm is taught by these spirits.

Serkos

Serkos is another name for Odayla, and the animal spirits associated with Odayla can be found HERE.

Granny Vo and Uncle

These spirits are very old and rather mysterious and live in a tent on a vast empty plain in the spirit world. Granny Vo is the spirit of untamed nature and may have something to do with the goddess Velhara who was mother to Odayla, the foreign Balazaring spirit Rigtaina and maybe a few other spirits and goddesses besides. The Kolatings see her as old and dotty and say if they do not perform her rites correctly she will destroy the world. She gave Kolat the Three Bow, and Three Bow spirits can do a number of interesting things such as shoot magic arrows, start fires, make rainbows and read omens at the cost of keeping a unique, capricious and strange taboo set by Granny.

Propitiative Rites

Worship of chaos is not permitted, but certain chaos entities feature prominently in Kolat rituals as enemies and special rites can be used to combat them.

Karkajan

The chaos shaman is invoked in many Kolating rituals as an evil and corrupting influence which must be driven away. However there is a rite involving making a decorated straw man to represent Karkajan and undergoing a small heroquest which ends in burning the figure. This will confer a long term resistance to foreign spirits. The recent fashion in Sartar is to dress the strawman up in the black robes of a Jakaleel shaman or in the red finery of the Red Goddess herself; needless to say this will get you crucified if the Lunars catch you. Some shamen have always advocated putting living enemies like broo or goats inside a wicker man to add to the potency of the rite, serious hardliners among the rebel tribes are now burning Lunar missionaries alive.

Malia

Kolatings offer a fawn and a lamb to Malia four times a year, and settled Orlanthi may invite them to do so in their steads as a defence against disease, even though the practice is frowned upon by the cult of Chalana Arroy. Any shaman may attempt to exorcise a spirit of disease, but it takes a long time, and if the rite fails the shaman himself may be infected and any further attempt to cure the person, even by a theist priest of a healing god or goddess will fail.

Thed

Shamen can summon a spirit called Be'e at certain wasp nests. This spirit will ride a wasp all the way to Thed herself and tell her that Kolat knows she is there. Later, if the shaman is threatened by broo, a wasp will come and give him forewarning of the attack and then go and sting a broo.

If the broo doesn't take the hint and go back, the shaman can release a huge swarm of wasps from his mouth which will set about the broo. This rite is not easy to do, finding the wasps nest is hard enough, and its effectiveness depends on how powerful a spirit of Be'e the Shaman can summon and defeat. If it works the spirit becomes a kind of 'wasp elemental', of equivalent size to an elemental of the same intensity and all broo within it will make all rolls at one difficulty level harder.