> Lambril: I've seen this cult refered to countless times and it has
> started to annoy me that I know next to nothing about it. Any chance
> of getting a summary of the cult's history, hierarchy and magic?
I'll give you the sensible (RQ3) and original (RQ2) versions of this.
Lanbril was a near-human resident of the Spike during Godtime. He was scorned by more ancient and powerful gods who had vastly superior magic. In revenge Lanbril secretly robbed and inconveniences the gods who had spurned him. Lanbril is now worshipped by thieves and other lowly types in most large cities of south-central Genertela.
Nobody knows the face of Lanbril, for he is the master of disguise. Priest-leaders take the part of Lanbril in cult religious ceremonies.
Although not included in the GoG Cults Book, we can assume Lanbril is a "typical" Thief Cult, providing one special Rune spell to his cult initiates. It seems likely this would be the "Face of Lanbril" spell, described below. If you want a more "high-powered" thief cult in your game, you could assume that Lanbril is the single Thief God of whom all others are disguises, and treat his cult(s) similarly to those of the Trickster: a properly-informed, well-connected Lanbril cultist can gain admission to (and Rune magic from) other local Thief God cults. But whether or not you chose to do this in your campaign, it shouldn't impact our common shared world (as thieves are not flamboyant, highprofile types who freely advertise their wide ranging connections and secret abilities).
In RQ2, the Cult of Lanbril appeared in the "Pavis" Common Knowledge book. It took up 6 pages of smallish print, including the following:
MYTHOS AND HISTORY
Stresses the insanity and inferiority complex of Lanbril.
Death seen as "the final escape" -- punishment avoided in the
grave. Runes of the cult are Mastery, Disorder, Illusion.
NATURE OF THE CULT
Patron of criminals and the underworld across the human world.
ORGANISATION
"Rings" around individual Rune Priests; co-ordination between
rings depends on leaders' desires; criminal families are known.
Wildday of Disorder and Illusion weeks are "lucky" days; Holy
Days are left to individual priests.
LAY MEMBERSHIP
New Skills: Streetwise, Fast Talk, Feign Death, Foil Restraints,
Voice Mimicry, Shadowing, Thieves' Argot.
INITIATE MEMBERSHIP
New Alchemy: Thunder Lung Dust, Dust of Death, Visibility Dust,
Scent-Stop Dust, Stink Dust, Sleep Powder/Venom, Smoke Bombs,
Flares.
New Battle Magic: Conceal Item, Face of Lanbril, Forget.
MASTER THIEVES (RUNE LORDS)
"An embarrassing superfluity ... Master Thieves may use iron
weapons and armour, though such items are rather impractical
for thieves" [ho ho ho]
RUNE PRIESTS
New Rune Magic: Divination Block.
ASSOCIATED CULTS
Black Fang (ally, no spell).
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
Special Devices: the Magic Chirper, the Whumper, the Thief's
Helper. New rules for Locks and Lockpicking. Notes on thieves
outside the Lanbril Cult.
"Other lands in the world claim similar gods to Lanbril, under strange
and exotic names. There are many thief gods, but perhaps all are disguise=
s
of Lanbril, King of Thieves!"
The new Spirit Magic spell "Face of Lanbril" was described as follows (I have hacked its terminology into RQ3-speak for convenience):
FACE OF LANBRIL: 2-point spell, self, temporal
This is a general disguise spell, causing the user's face to become exceedingly ordinary and forgettable, so that one wearing this spell is likely to pass unnoticed and unremembered, especially in a crowd. No two uses of this spell give exactly the same face, and the user's clothing also shifts in the direction of ordinariness, though a Search will allow an observer to see that the spell user has either much better or much worse clothing "concealed" under his "ordinary clothes". The spell cannot change sex or race. If a female troll casts it, she will look like a very ordinary female troll, who may still stand out in many places.
I suggest that this would make a fine one- or two-point reusable Cult Special Divine Spell for the Thief God cult of Lanbril. As you can see, the rest of the RQ2 cult was a typical "kitchen-sink" writeup, every special power and device and skill and technique the writer(s) came up with thrown into the common format, mish-mashed uncomfortably together.
> I don't think that the Gremlin is distinct from the Nilmerg and I
> don't think they are easy to tell apart. It's just another Gremlin,
> standing in line with the others, doing his task again and again
> and again, but doing it wrong.
I agree. Gremlins are "broken" nilmergs. The same species, different attitude. It's surely possible for a normal nilberg to "break". When dwarfs identify a broken nilmerg, they could: discard it; adjust it; or sic it on a human inventor. This seems most productive and fun to me...
> I dunno who but I know why. =
> Nilberg is gremlin backwards.
A Nysalor riddle, one assumes, as it isn't.
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Nick
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