Copyright © 1996, 1999 by Michael O’Brien
Who Are the Lunar Coders?
The Lunar Coders were first presented in Avalon Hill’s RQ3 release Strangers in Prax (1994).
The Coders are special agents of the Lunar Empire, dispatched by the Emperor on sensitive political missions in the Provinces. They directly serve the Overseer of the Lunar Provinces, Appius Luxius, and through him the Red Emperor. Responsible for matters of provincial security, Appius perceived a need for a select group of special agents to take decisive, overt action on intelligence affecting the security and stability of the Lunar Provinces and the Empire’s conquests in the South. Upon receiving his Emperor’s blessing, Appius gathered together the Empire’s finest as the agents known as the Coders.
The Coders are a model of decency and civilized behavior. They are not chaotics, and conscientiously avoid that aspect of the Lunar way. They always work in the open, and wear distinctive red cloaks announcing their status. Currently, there are five members of the Coders: Count Julan; Princess Anderida, a Lunar noblewoman and priestess of the Seven Mothers; Nose Ring, a criminal reformed through the trials and punishments of the Danfive Xaron cult; Eslas the Tracker, an outcast from Pent; and Maculus the Monitor, a Lunar sorcerer.
Their future careers are alluded to Reaching Moon’s Life of Moonson, the 50 participant LARP. Count Julan is in fact a key player, and stands a very good chance of becoming the new Red Emperor following the unfortunate demise of Moonson Argentius in the course of the game! For more information, see the excellent Life of Moonson section of Nick Brooke’s homepage.
Errata
Maculus’s SIZ (p.6)
In the Arrival section, Maculus is described as “short with a bald head gleaming in the sunlight”. Given that he is SIZ 17, he obviously had Diminish SIZ cast on him that day (pretty good effort, considering he doesn’t know it!)
One High Priest Too Many (p.14)
In this scenario you might recall Krogar Wolfhelm uses Mindspeech to send secret messages to the PCs and the other Orlanthi during the worship ceremony in the New Pavis Air Temple. Originally, it was my idea that Krogar could another, more typically Orlanthi spell: yes, you guessed it, WIND WORDS! I was excited to think that after 15 years of RQ I had finally come up with a legitimate use for this pretty much useless and costly spell!
Sadly, it got axed in the editing stage so as not to offend the rules lawyers. Well, I guess if a Orlanth Wind Lord ain’t gonna use Wind Words in his temple, on a cult holy day, then I guess he’s never going to use it!
Maculus’s Sorcery Regimen (p.25)
It says here that “every Season Maculus casts a Damage Resistance Intensity 13, Duration 13 on each of the other Coders except Julan”.
Anderida’s hit location information (p.29) is missing this information. Add 13 points of Damage Resistance (in brackets) to each hit location.
Unfortunately, Nose Ring and Eslas are given 12 – rather than 13 – points bracketed Damage Resistance protection on their hit location diagrams! Change both to 13.
I believe these discrepancies must’ve come about when we changed how Maculus protected the other Coders – I was
originally considering the Protective Circle spell, but Mike Dawson changed how the spell worked so we switched back to plain old Damage Resistance.
Spirit Magic Casting Percentages (pp.27-34)
According to the official RQ3 Errata, the chance to cast spirit magic is equal to:
(POW x 5) +/- (magic skill modifier) – ENC
As Devin Cutler and several others pointed out on the Glorantha Digest, we kinda got our math muddled a bit in the Lunar Coders section! Here are the correct spirit magic casting percentages of the Coders:
| Julan 115% – ENC 20 = 95% Armbreaker (allied spirit) 109% |
| Anderida 129% – ENC 6 = 123% Anderida is particularly susceptible to the phases of the Red Moon. All her magic skills are affected. Alter spirit magic as follows:Dark/dying moon (halved)… 65% – ENC 6 = 59%Crescent/Half Moon (no change)Full Moon (increased by half again)…194% – ENC 6 = 188%Vectis (allied spirit) = 126% |
| Maculus 96% – ENC 5 = 91% Seris (familiar) 107% Canus (familiar) 138% |
| Nose Ring Doesn’t use magic Moonflower (allied spirit) 123% |
| Eslas 103% – ENC 12 = 91% |
| Wyvern Mounts 38% – ENC (rider) Reptus POW 16, INT 12, DEX 13 Spirit Magic: 84% – ENC (rider) Albus POW 15, INT 06, DEX 13 Spirit Magic: 73% – ENC (rider) |
Count Julan Stats (p.27)
Julan’s ENC is 20, not 36 as stated. His fatigue therefore is 37 – 20 ENC = 17.
Maculus Stats (p.30)
Maculus’s second familiar Canus’s Magic Points are not included in Maculus’s total. Add Canus’s 24 to the total, giving a grand total of 111 for Maculus to play around with.
Eslas Stats (p.33)
Under Travelling Gear it says that Eslas wears “stiff leather” (2 AP) on her body. Her Coder cloak is enchanted with 8 AP, which should give her a total of 10 AP on the torso. However, as Peter J Whitelaw noted, on her hit location diagram she’s been given 11 AP. I can only conclude that Eslas must also wear soft leather padding (1 AP) under her stiff leather jerkin, and admire Peter for his pedantry.
Related Pages
- Beyond the Building Wall – Errata
- Gamemaster Notes for the Sun County River Ritual
- Sun County – Errata
- The Lunar Coders – Maculus Notes
- The Lunar Coders – Pendragon Pass Personality Traits
Page Last updated: 2022-10-12 18:04:23
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