Lanbril

Lanbril

Mythos and History

Lanbril was a son of Grandfather Mortal. In Godtime, humans came late among the other gods. While he claimed to be equal to the other gods, they rejected him as inferior because his father was killed by Death, the first sword.

Lanbril was enraged, and the rage warped his soul. If the other gods held him to be inferior, let them so believe. Lanbril studied the ways of deceit, and perfected the techniques of seeming not to be doing what he was indeed doing. When other gods worked with magic and power, he rejected these in favor of physical skill and covert manipulation. He cultivated Disorder, and worked to, attain the illusion that all was right until repair was impossible and he had made his escape. Lanbril did invent a magic of his own, to confound the pursuit of his victims, and to confuse those suspecting his presence.

After a while, Lanbril’s mad influence permeated the world. Some devout cultists go so far as to state that this influence inspired Eurmal to help Orlanth in stealing Death from Humakt. This story is rejected by most theologists. During the Darkness, Lanbril taught mortals to survive by skill and cunning, and by watching out for themselves first. In historical times, thieves and other self-seeking scum plague all communities, following Lanbril’s path.

Lanbril’s gift is to help the guilty to avoid punishment, including death. Death is the final escape; punishment does not follow a Lanbril cultist past the grave, and Lanbril ensures that the soul gets back into circulation, someday.

Nature of the Cult

Lanbril is a cult of the criminal underworld in human societies across the world. Trolls, elves, and dwarfs do not often embrace Lanbril, but the god is not unknown among these races, especially by those who have been tainted by contact with humans. He is the deity to whom thieves and criminals may turn for concealment and improvement of skills.

Lanbril, the patron of sneaks, criminals, and of the human underworld, is the expression of all egotistical and antisocial acts which must be done covertly. Any being, mortal or immortal, who acts in this manner may come under the guidance and protection of Lanbril. The nature of human society is such that Lanbril always finds followers.

This covert cult exists in natural counterpoise to centralizing and ordering forces in society. The stronger the social order, the better the chances for Lanbril thieves. (This creates a natural conflict with Krarsht, who seeks the replacement of Order with Control.) Paradoxically, the Lanbril gangs often regularize the criminal element. Lanbril cultists do not advertise themselves, and are not known to society at large, except as thieves, who provide training in certain skills. The notorious Black Fang of Pavis was a Lanbril cultist during part of his mortal term.

Lanbril supports any established legal and economic order which permits proper conditions for his cult. Therefore most rings do not work as revolutionary agents against an established hierarchy. Most thieves are vocally patriotic, and defend their tribe or town against enemies.

Lanbril likes secrecy, trickery, and treachery to be applied by his followers to established society. Lanbril is not pleased by internecine strife, or violence for its own sake, since many criminal endeavors require precise and trusting co-operation for their success.

	Standard	Cult Specialist
Skills	Climb, Jump, Evaluate, Conceal, Devise, Sleight, Listen, Search, Hide, Sneak,	Fast Talk, Feign Death, Foil restraints, Shadowing, Voice Mimicry
Spirit Magic	Mobility, Befuddle, Glamour, Mind Speach, Glue	Conceal Item, Face of Lanbril, Forget
Divine Magic	Any	Divination Block

Lanbril Special Skills

Feign Death Manipulation 10%' This esoteric skill allose the practitioner to conceal himself amid a scene of carnage. Feigning death involves lying absolutely still and maitaining a posture so death-like as to be ignored by enemies. A successful use fo the skill will fool an untrained enemy looking carefully for bodies. A critical roll will even fool a trained healer though not a Detect Life spell or checking pulses etc. A failure will not fool anyone who cared.

Foil Restraints Manipulation 00% This is th ability to position onsedelf so that restraining ropes, chains etc. are applied ineffectively. The initial roll must succeed when the bonds are applied. If this initial roll succeeds. the character can try to free himself from the bonds at any future time by again making his Foil Restraints foll successfully. He may try once every five minutes. If the initial roll fails he cannot trry to escape. If he critically succeeded in his initial Foil Restraints roll, he need not roll again to escape, but may release himself at any time.

Voice Mimicry Oratory 05% This ability duplicates teh tone of somebody else's voice. Penalties should be assessed against the chances for success if the voice to be mimicked is wiidly different fromt eh character doing the mimicking.

Shadowing Stealth 10% This is the art of secretly following someone around a town or city. It is normally impossible in a rural setting (Hide should be used instead). Success must be rolled every five minutes while the thief shadows the subject. If the shadower fails the skill roll, the subject is allowed a Search roll to notice who is following. If the roll is missed, the subject still knows he is being followed.

Lanbril Spirit Magic

Conceal Item 1 point    Range touch, Focused, Passive, Temporal This spell acts to conceal a single item smaller than 3 ENC points. An attached satchel of backpack could be concealed with this spell. If the concealed object is a weapon, it will become visible as soon as it is used to attack or parry with. The item is concealed by missdirection, just as a normal invisibility spell conceals a person.

Face of Lanbril 2 points    Range self, Unfocused, Passive, Temporal This is a general disguise spell, causing the user's face to become exceedingly ordinary and forgettable, so that on wearing this spell is likely to pass unnoticed and forgotten, 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 of much worse clothing concealed under his 'ordinary clothes'. The spell cannot change sex or race. If f female troll casts it, she will look like a very ordinary female troll, who may still stand out in many places.

Forget 3 points    Ranged, Unfocused, Passive, Temporal This causes the subject to forget events taking place 10 melee rounds after the casting. The memory loss does not take place immediately, but begins to affect the target about five minutes after the spell is cast. If a guard chases some thieves who successfully hit him with this spell, the guard will not remember the encounter later. This is a good spell to throw on a victim who is already Befuddled.

Lanbril Divine Magic

Divination Block

1 point    Range special, Duration as long as the caster is a living cult member, Non-reuseable, Stackable

Divination Block will block the history of the activities of up to 12 individuals associated with one definable material object for and activity period of up to 12 hours. Alternatively, it may be used to keep the history of one object from being revealed by Divination spells of the Lhankor Mhy Knowledge spell cast by the priests of any god for a period of time in the objects history up to 12 hours in length. The existence of a Divination Block will be revealed to an inquiring priest only on a critical success roll for the Divination. If the spell is stacked, an extra point of spell doubles the period of time covered by the spell. A third point wil tripple the tim etc.