Lucius Mattheson

A. Guild Watcher -- plastic B. Lucius' Scribe -- as above C. Unmounted Rollins Black -- plastic (a shot in the dark) D. Emmeline Bellerose -- plastic (another shot in the dark). Please contact me via messenger A. and B. are sought to avoid buying two whole boxes for two models, C. and D. are sought as proxies.

Thank you -- another very interesting piece of music. Evokes the horrible ages of hanging, frozen in death-agony, from the Tree. This suggests both a seemingly inevitable and yet perplexing descent into crime and the final, hideous, endless fall when the ladder is kicked away. Many thanks indeed.

I agree entirely: although there is ample room for black humour (I prefer Turkish-coffee-black humour), the principal tone should be gothic horror in my opinion. We do after all have a blood-gorged tree whose roots are intertwined with skulls, Coppelius (tearing out children's eyes) and men burnt to death in a grate or eaten alive! My own eccentricities tend to the ''grymdarkke'' rather than the other way, but yes, v. much a polarising design.

Another experimental vignette, entitled for the present ''Praeludium'', intended to be the first draught of one of eight named after the dances of a Baroque suite.

The use of the staircase w. the second Hound is inspired -- I have always imagined the model in question leaping a stile or ditch in the hunting field running down an Arcanist, perhaps, far into the wastes around the City, but the pose now fits perfectly into Malifaux itself. Also the irregular cobblestones: I don't know if they are handmade or purchased, but the use of the bases in either case shows good judgement: I imagine the better parts of Malifaux are neatly cobbled with setts, kerbs and flagstone pavements, this rougher look suggests a hunt into the Slums.

Many thanks for your reply: the lyrics are somewhat like spare prose-poetry, aren't they? Capable of so many Malifaux interpretations: This catches something I have always felt but been unable to express -- the childishness of the Resurrectionists, the shameless curiosity of McMourning or Seamus' mad dance through the world (the ''Mad Hatter'', the allusion to the child-world of Alice which can be quite terrifyingly twisted -- cf. the Mad Tea Party in ''Dreamchild'' -- is, I think, no accident or thoughtless allusion), the whimsies of Mortimer, Sebastian and the Dead Man's Ball, Gwenifer's vicious little piece of revenge on the two little girls, Kirai's unadulterated bliss or hate -- children are essentially amoral and the Resurrectionists, amongst the death and violence, have essentially the same childlike gleeful amorality. Knowledge of uncanny mysteries has made them consider themselves above conventional morality and has essentially returned them to the ''state of nature'', the moral position of a little child moved by every passion.

Thank you for your reply: the story ('Doppelganger') can be found in the core volume, in the 1.5 edition pp. 200-202. I must compare the texts of the first edition and the 1.5 edition and produce a variorum edition one day! It's an interesting story, isn't it -- the title might be loosely applied to Dora and her child ('one who is not as one seems', a misapplication) but is only later revealed to be a reference to a true Doppelganger. The ambiguity surrounding Dora and the Doppelganger is very well handled, at no point is their rrelationship to one another or to their schemes made explicit, least of all in the fascinating betrayal that forms the central element of the story. Such ambiguity and the unexplained nature, emotional parasitism and strange powers of the Neverborn draws heavily on the terror-fear of the unknown and is its greatest strength -- in ambiguity lies the unknown, in the unknown is true fear. The description of the child is very well handled and the use of humour is adroit and does not detract from fear and betrayal.

Yes, you are quite right: 'One Room' can be found on pp. 6-22 of 'Broken Promises', the second part of ''Nemesis'' can be found on pp. 52-68 of the thirty-third issue. The first part can be found on pp. 47-56 of the thirtieth issue. Without disrespect to Mr. Caroland, or to any of the other writers (Malifaux is unquestionably the finest fictional world in existence) I agree that they are not of the quality of the earlier Lucius pieces. Edit: It ought to be stressed that this is a private opinion founded on taste not merit and in no way lessens my regard for any employee of Wyrd.

Purple Mist: I'm not sure if non-contestants can comment, so please forgive me. I do like the mottled metal (especially on the near-side leg of the second Hunter) and the unrelentingly grim simplicity of the bases: conveying something of the frontier wildness and hostility of the world Breachside. The Mobile Toolkit is a wonderfully strange model, a strange mix of steam-boiler and bird-like elegance.

As a Scottish man you have my sincerest good wishes. I imagine your tickets will fly off the shelves!

Mr. Werdipi has kindly provided the issue, and, in doing so, the reason that I quite missed the story in question: I expected to find it under ''Death of Nicodeme'' and forgot altogether that Nicodeme meets his fate in the second part of ''Nemesis'', which all along lay in Wyrd Chronicles issue 33, pp. 52-68, the work of Mason Crawford, ''under my very nose''. Most annoying! The first part can be found on pp. 47-56 of the thirtieth issue. An interesting story with some excellent vignettes, isn't it? The convergence, almost, of Lady Justice and her Marshals with the horrors they fight, the political quadrille started by the appointment of Governor Marlow (the Secretary and the Lady), Lucius' elegant manipulation of the Lady to obtain his end, the glimpse of emotion and grief even in the blind, righteous Justice and the final twist (made more effective by Nicodeme's horror, not rage, nor a melodramatic cry of ''foiled'', but at last real, human fear in the Lord of the Dead), taken advantage of so adroitly by Mortimer, who possesses a good deal of simple animal cunning and a great deal of black humour. Although implied in the ''Dead Man's Ball'' when used for resurrection, it also provides a mechanism for the magickal medicine made possible by Soulstones, which gives greater force to the utilitarian justification of the Guild's constant harvest of the poor, weak, wretched and insane to maintain the flow of magic. It is a chilling thought, but I think a very likely one, that we would accept the same price if the comforts of our modern civilisation, the Internet, the mass-production of an industrial age and the comparative leisure and opulence of life it gives, the telephone, train, motor-car happened to be the return. Once more you have my thanks.

I re-read ''Shifting Loyalties'' to-night, and without giving away any details, the Secretary dances a triumphant gavotte. I have always imagined this scene with one specific piece of music -- Handel's gavotte in G major, played on the piano and not on the harpsichord. It's a very simple, charming piece of music, quite within the capability of an able child and full of gaiety: sheer triumph is a very simple childlike emotion and I imagine that Lucius would find it most appropriate. That led me to thinking about music and the setting of Malifaux: does anyone else make musical associations with stories, scenes or characters, and if so what pieces of music remind you of Malifaux? Anything -- classical, modern (popular, rock and roll, metal), non-Western (naturally appropriate for the Ten Thunders!) you like.

I re-read ''Shifting Loyalties'' tonight (in the eponymous book, M. Farrer, pp. 236-270). Quite apart from being necessary to understand the Burning Man, it has one of the best Lucius scenes -- his triumphant gavotte.

I am very grateful for your reply. To my considerable annoyance (I pride myself on my memory) I cannot immediately lay hands on the volume and the pagination of the story in question. I shall attempt to supply them tomorrow: I have spent a great deal of the day putting up with travelling, which I dislike!

Once again, you have my thanks for replying. ''The Dead Man's Ball'' is Shifting Loyalties pp. 93-107. A fascinating look at the Resurrectionists: as you say, a family of intellectual aristocrats, set apart from, and ''above'' conventional moralities, condescending to inferiors, prone to petty quarrels, but when one has such power at one's command petty quarrels are both violent and often (temporarily or permanently) fatal. The story possesses one of the most effective hideous endings I know of: Gwenifer has quite passed beyond 'morality' with her growing power and will commit at least a bloody triple murder to provide new subjects. Also, I fancy, petty revenge on the girls -- such power, as I suggested, magnifies and perverts (according to our morality) one's view of the world and death becomes quite commonplace. Incidentally, I have an erratum: ''Unmask!, Unmask'' is in Issue 14 of the Chronicles.