Fun Fact #644 Leechcraft Sabotage
Fun Fact #644
Lǣcecraft Sabotage
In 79 AD, Historian Pliny The Elder wrote about how The Greeks had discovered a counter to War Elephants accessible only though lǣcecraft (Leechcraft). Healers were often spared by invading armies to render aid to the injured. They sometimes took advantage of this trust however by introducing leeches into the drinking supply for the horses and elephants. The result was an occasional Elephant driven into madness from a leech in its trunk, the Elephant would often trample and kill until it was slain. Thankfully this was not common. Instead a more common form of sabotage comes from a leech’s ability to carry blood borne diseases for up to 4 months, meaning even just one could infect soldiers with a life altering, and often debilitating disease. Something that could be done by the Doctor themselves since the pathogen could take weeks to become noticeable.
The most recent record of lǣcecraft Saboteurs comes from the Vietnam war where the VA attached leaches to the noses of Water buffalo they found in the hopes they were ones used by the NVA to transport supplies. If they were, then the water buffalo would then seek out their owner, often leading to the discovery of hidden NVA tunnels which the VA could then reveal to the Americans. Ironically turning The Vietnamese “Animal of Loyalty” into a weapon which abused that loyalty.
