Weird Revisited: Rogue Elephant

To adventurers in the City, the question, “have you see the elephant?” has a different meaning than elsewhere. Some have encountered an infamous, wandering hotel in the shape of an elephant, now the residence of a dangerous (and possibly insane) sorcerer.

The Mastodon Colossus, or Hotel Elephantine, was built as a tourist attraction on Lapin Isle in the City’s barony of Rook End. The (admittedly eccentric) architect Jamis Maguffin constructed it through consultation of certain codices of the Ancients--and some magical materials probably dating to Meropis dredged from the City’s harbor. The elephant was twelve stories tall and had stout legs 60 feet in diameter. It had 31 guest rooms, a gallery, tobacconist's shop, and an observation deck shaped like a gigantic howdah.

Most spectacularly, the whole thing was planned to move. Maguffin promised that when all of the thaumaturgic glyphs and enhancements were complete, the elephant would be able to ambulate without any seeming change to the rooms on its interior. These enhancements, unfortunately, would take some time.

Eleven years later, when the thaumaturgical working was (supposedly) nearly complete, the elephant walked away one night with a compliment of guests. Most have turned up dead in various locales all over the world and beyond in the four decades since.

The theft and the murders were laid at the feet of Hieronymus Gaunt, lich and (self-styled) wicked sorcerer. He and a band of miscreants entered the elephant and completed the rituals to give in motion. Since that time they've travelled the world in decadent style, taking their seemingly unending orgy of dark thaumaturgy, baroque perversity, and deadly amusements where they may. Sometimes, when it amuses Gaunt, they take others aboard and survivors have reported stores of plunder, both mundane and magical.

This post first appeared in February of 2011. I did a post on the real elephant-shaped buildings of our world after it. You can also read more about them at your local library. Or, you know, the internet.

Weird Revisited: Five Kooky Cults

I came upon this post when searching for another one. I had forgotten some of these (this post was original presented in 2011), so it seemed worth a revisit... 

Here are a few minority religious groups seen at least as bit odd (if not outright dangerous) by the majority of the City's citizens:

The Abattoir Cult: Secret followers of the sinister and bloody-handed Lord of the Cleaver. A liturgical text (anthropodermically bound) honoring this obscure eikone is known to exist in a private collection in New Lludd. His cult tends to crop up in districts devoted to meatpacking or slaughter pens and is associated with the emergence of serial killers.

The Temple of Father Eliah Exalted: This Old Time Religion sect preaches racial and gender equality, chastity--and the godhood of its prophet, Father Eliah Exalted. The Temple owns a number of groceries, gas stations, hotels, and other business. These are ostensibly held by acolytes but seem mainly to enrich the Father. The Temple is politically active and the Father’s support can sway elections. Many are suspicious that Exalted’s powers of oratory and occasional miracles suggest that he is one of the Gifted or perhaps a secret thaumaturgist, but proof has been hard to come by.

Serpent-spotters: An informal collection of people forgotten by society--mostly poor and elderly spinsters and widowers--who are convinced that the monster that appeared in the Eldritch River 30 years ago, and supposedly delivered secret prophecies to City fathers, will return, heralding the apocalypse. On days individually chosen they hold vigil in Eldside Park. They hope to be present at the time of the serpent’s return so it will reward their faith with a ride on his back to a watery Paradise.

The Electrovangelic Church of the Machine Messiah: A worldwide movement dedicated to building the perfect construct to manifest the Messiah and usher in a new age of mechanical spiritual perfection.

The Followers of the Rabbit: Not an organized religion, but instead a collection of superstitions and cautionary urban legends forming a secret liturgy for some folk working along the boardwalk of Lapin Isle. They hope to placate the godling of the island, the dark personification of the rabbit in the moon--the man in the rabbit suit that is not a man.

Weird Revisited: The Two Cities of Hoborxen

I think this post from February of 2011 may be one of my favorite Weird Adventures related posts...

On some moonless night in the City, you can look across the Eldritch River and see on the other bank a shining, alien city with buildings that look as if there made of blown glass and infused with a pale, fluorescent glow. In the morning, you might look again at the same place on the far bank, wondering if the strange city had just been dream, and you’d see the gray smokestacks and worn docks of humdrum Hoborxen, and you’d be sure you that it had been.

And you’d be wrong.

Since the earliest days of Ealderdish settlement, strange things have been seen and heard in the area that would eventually become the city of Hoborxen. These irruptions from elsewhere have only increased over the centuries since. Now, in the night, the working class neighborhoods and decaying waterfront of day Hoborxen are intruded upon, and sometimes replaced, by an otherworldly city of tall spires, all its buildings made of something resembling glass, warm to the touch like the mantle of a recently lit lantern.

Every night, some part of Hoborxen is replaced by the intruder--sometimes only a single structure, other times an entire neighborhood. On nights of the new moon, Horboxen is entirely replaced. The city begins to appear at dusk, as if emerging from an unseen but evaporating fog, or coalescing from the dying light. The strange glow of its structures rises slowly; it's brightest at midnight and wanes toward dawn.

No human inhabitants of the alien city are ever seen, but it's not completely deserted. Fairy-like creatures--obscenely jabbering, cinereous, and moth-winged--sometimes buzz about its streets or lewdly call from high perches. A low growl, a sound as much felt in the bones as heard, periodically reverberates through the streets, and some explorers have claimed to heard a woman crying or laughing softly.

Exploration of the glassy structures usually turns up everyday detritus from Hoborxen, most of which is of little value. Sometimes, things lost elsewhere in the world turn up here, but again seldom anything of real value except perhaps to the one that lost it. It’s a common tale among adventurers that there's a great treasure haul somewhere in the city, but no one has retrieved anything more than a few enigmatic, otherworldly trinkets.

Would-be treasure-hunters should weigh the likely gain against the potential dangers.  A number of people entering the areas of the alien city are never seen again. 

The people of Hoborxen are inured to these nocturnal visitations, and rarely remark on them, though addiction, violence, and suicide are more common there than in neighboring towns. No one knows where they go when they’re elsewhere. “Nowhere,” they say, and shrug and turn away.

Some thaumaturgist muse darkly that there may come a time when Hoborxen will be gone entirely, every night. And after that, will the incursion spread?

Weird Revisted: Hobogoblin Garbage Kings!

This post related to the City and Weird Adventures first appeared on Halloween in 2011. I think I may can coined the term "nyfitsanthropy."

The City generates a lot of garbage, and most of it goes to the expansive Klaw Island landfill. Marshy Klaw Island has always had a sparse human population, but the coming of the landfill with its hills of garbage and pits of refuse has drawn gangs of hobogoblins.

The hobogoblins have divided up into tribes with zealously guarded territories. They mine the garbage for usable (and saleable) items. Hobogoblin “alchemists” have become adepted and making various minor potions with the most dubious of alchemical wastes, and can distill hooch from virtually anything organic.

The hobogoblins must defend their holdings from monsters of various sorts, attracted to the waste. They’ve been able to train giant rats as guard animals to protect their settlements from giant insects, aggressive fungi, or hungry otyughs. In years past, inbred wererat clans sometimes contested the hobogoblin hegemony, but periodic eradication and vaccination campaigns by City sanitation officials seemed to have sharply curtailed (if not eradicated) nyfitsanthropy on the island.

Hobogoblin legends tell of the first and greatest of the landfill kingdoms, Wastenot, a scrap Atlantis now sunk beneath the brackish waters of Lake Zathogua. Hubris of the swells in Wastenot led to neglect of due tribute to the beast of the lake, and all of Wastenot’s “grandeur” was pulled down by pale and vengeful tentacles in a single night.

Weird Revisited: Strange Things at the Automat

I recent review of Weird Adventures reminded me of this post from July of 2010. The name of the establishment is, of course, a reference to characters in the works of James Branch Cabell and Robert W. Chambers, two writers whose work certainly influenced conception of Weird Adventures.

A phantom automat stalks the streets of the City. Horvendile & Hawberk’s may appear any where, but is less likely to be found on a busy thoroughfare or crowded street. It seems to thrive in the shadows. It's never found in the same place twice, and less than half of people who have been there have visited it more than once--and urban legend holds that to encounter it more than seven times is a bad omen, and harbingers death.

Horvendile & Hawberk’s, or sometimes “Double H’s” (used somewhat superstitiously), looks new, though its decor and signage looks a decade or more out of date. Decorative glass fixtures around the upper walls are etched with astrological symbols. The staff is always crisply dressed and pleasant, but doesn’t engage in conversation. In addition to the automat staples like coffee, pie, sandwiches, and macaroni and cheese, the coin-operated, hinged glass slots at double H’s sometimes hold (seemingly random) unusual items:

1. A Subway and Elevated Rail-Lines map of the City, with unknown stations identified.

2. The egg of an Oriental Griffin, worth a fortune--had it not been cooked sunny side up. Eating it leads to heightened sight for 48 hours.

3. A girasol ring, worth $200 to a common fence, but an evaluation by an expert reveals it to mark the bearer by tradition as the heir to a micronation in Eastern Ealderde.

4. A risque postcard of a Poitêmienne prostitute, imbued with the power of the eikone Doll, so that the owner has the power of charm over members of the opposite sex as long as they carry it on their person.

5. A used napkin with the address of a warehouse where a Staarkish Imperial military manhunter golem has been stored. It’s battered, but only needs a power source to return to operation.

6. Four-and-a-half pages of illuminated text in a magical script from a grimoire on which someone has over-written a series of bawdy limericks. Contains 1-4 spells, but must be recopied to separate the formulae from the limericks.

7. A post-bill asking after a lost dog named “Jakey.” The crude drawing of the dog is so indistinct as to be unhelpful, but it's strangely unsettling to the viewer. Any one who touches it will have vague nightmares and unrestful sleep that night.

8. A ornately engraved antique sixgun. It's intelligent (Int 17) and will attempt to dominate any bearer to force him or her to seek out its original owner who’s taxidermied corpse is currently on display in a roadside curio and oddity museum in the Dustlands. When used, it confers a +2 to hit.

9. A slice of preternaturally tasty pecan pie, that the consumer will talk about from time to time with some nostalgia for 1d20 years after.

10. A pocket note-pad with a glossary of hobogoblin cant and signs, which, if utilized improves reaction when encountering the tramp humanoids, and provides other helpful information for to “gentlemen of the road.”

Empire Island Revisited

Coming just in time for the resumption (at least for one more session) of my long hiatused Weird Adventures game this Sunday, Lester B. Portly unveiled on G+ this map of Empire Island with the neighborhood key arranged in alphabetical order. Handy!

Hospitals are marked with red crosses, but I would warn user that this information is for planning purposes only and may not reflect the current location of medical facilities. For instance, Aldwood (consumed as it is by a fictional reality) doesn't have an accessible hospital.

People in the City

After Saturday's Detectives & Daredevils Google+ game set in the world of Weird Adventures, there was some discussion of NPCs that have showed up in my various games. Here are a few that might still be encountered in the City in 5889:

Bookman, Rawley: Superintendent at an apartment building in Morningstar Hills on the border with Solace.

DeWytt, Lola: Secretary for Victory Detective Agency.

Graves, Zacherly: A Barrowman cemetery manager.

Hardluck Hooligans: A kid gang in Hardluck. Prominent members include: Knuckles (the tough one), Da Brain (the smart one), Freckles (freckles), Topper (oversized tophat), Juniper (tomboy in an aviator helmet), Sunshine and Smiles (creepy, somber kids), the Kid in Yellow (weird kid from Little Carcosa), and Marbles. They have an ongoing feud with the Grumpf.

Hazzard, Hew: Wealthy industrialist, inventor, and playboy. His headquarters and research laboratory are in Marquesa near the airfield.

Shreck, Eldmore: Tall, portly lawyer, parnter in the firm Shreck & Wail. They are the executors of the estate of Charles Ranulf Urst.

Snow, Sara: Platinum-haired beauty who is either a cat that can turn into a woman or a woman who turns into a cat. Grifter and sometime gangster's moll.

Throne, H. Leland: Antiquarian bookseller in Grimalkin Village. He doesn't have any magical tomes, but does have works that deal with occult or esoteric topics. He also runs a side business in racy photography. He sells the photos to collectors and sometimes uses them for blackmail.

Two-Teeth Drexel: Hell Syndicate thug with oversized incisors. Previously in Barton Blanchefleur's gang.

Vandemaur, Urania: Matriarch of an Old Money family with a mansion on "Paupers Row."

Wail, Tophias: Short, bespectacled lawyer, partner in the firm Shreck & Wail. They are the executors of the estate of Charles Ranulf Urst.

Inner City Blues

Weird Adventures presents the City and it’s world in the year 5888, an era of automobiles, machine guns, and jazz.  Of course, that’s not the only age when there’s adventure to be had:

About thirty-five years in the future, the City is again seeing hard times. A  grinding war continues with Red Lemuria. Political scandal and public corruption has eroded trust in institutions. The aging subway trains are covered with graffiti. Solace is full of abandoned buildings, crime, drugs, and poverty. The Circus, once the brightly lit crossroads of the world, is now the home of sleazy grindhouses and a haven for pimps, hookers, and drug pushers.

The reputation of thaumaturgy has suffered just like other traditional institutions. Murderous gurus, scandals involving sex rituals, and scam artists have led to the thaumaturgic arts being viewed unsavory and dangerous by the masses, and old-fashion and hokey by the counter-culture.

There are still adventurers, though--and more than ever they're quasi-outlaws sticking it to the Fat Cats and the Establishment. Most of the dungeons have been cleaned out, but there are plenty of treasures in the hands of the wealthy. And there are always monsters--just now some of them sit in positions of power.

Foes: thrill-kill cult gurus, street gangs, the decadent wealthy with secrets to hide, corrupt cops and politicians, the Hell Syndicate.

Media Inspirations: Film/TV: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Enter the Dragon, Kolchak: the Night-Stalker, Shaft, Sugar Hill (1974), To The Devil...A Daughter, The Warriors, Vanishing Point; Books: the works of Dennis Wheatley and Stephen King, the Doctor Orient novels, the Destroyer novels, exploitive seventies nonfiction about witches and the occult; Comic Books: Night Force, Swamp Thing, Vampire Tales and any of Marvel’s other black and white magazines; Music: Jimmy Page’s unused soundtrack for the film Lucifer Rising. The Shaft and Truck Turner soundtracks by Isaac Hayes, Superfly soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield;  any of Goblin’s music from Argento’s films.

'Twas the Fight Before Yule

Last night's Weird Adventures Holiday Special opened with our heroes (Don Diabolico, Cornelius Doyle, and Boris Brovksy) getting a visit from the kid gang known as the Hardluck Hooligans: Knuckles (the tough one), Da Brain (the smart one), Freckles (freckles), Topper (oversized tophat), Juniper (tomboy in an aviator helmet), Sunshine and Smiles (creepy, somber kids), and the Kid in Yellow (weird kid from Little Carcosa) and a couple of others. As Knuckles explains it, the kids want to hire our heroes to capture the anti-Yule spirit, the Grumpf.

It seems the Grumpf beat some of  the Hooligans with switches last year and they want revenge. They want the the creature captured so they can put him on their on trial. From a piggie bank, they offer some gold coins stolen from an adventurers' haul as payment.

After determining that it's genuine, Diabolico confiscates the coin they offer, calling it a retainer. How are they going to find the Grumpf, though? Da Brain has it all figured. His calculations predict that Grumpf will appear for the first time this season in Donander Plaza, around the skating rink.

The guys start planning. They get a big cage from a circus; and a net gun, a grappling gun, and one of the experimental electro-guns they used before from Hew Hazzard (which will cost them a favor later). Their lovely administrative assistant, Lola DeWytt, gets drafted be ice-skating bait. The Hardluck Hooligan Marbles will be another selection on the buffet.

Evening falls on Donander Plaza with the gang in their places. The Grumpf shows up and ignores the bait, but instead starts shredding the Plaza's 80-foot Yule trees (one that's magic and sings). Grappling guns, net guns, and electro-blasts are fired, but the Grumpf is only briefly hobbled. Diabolico is licked in the face. The Grumpf bounds away, cursing.

The chase is on! Diabolico is driving a motorcycle with Boris in a sidecar. Boris finally gets him with a net gun. Then the guys lay into the bound eikone with crowbar and boot. When he's good and dazed, the gang drags him back to the Hooligans.

Turns out the kids have a Yuletide dinner prepared. Our heroes join in. Doyle doesn't want to turn Grumpf because he wants to put him on display, King Kong-style, but he's overruled by the others. Our heroes are presented with their payment: five gold coins total (equating to about $35.00 each).

Thirty-five dollars each. Only Doyle makes any move when the Grumpf breaks free and starts switching the Hooligans. We "iris in" on a disgruntled Boris and Diabolico continuing to eat their dinner.

Rooke

This is Mingus Rooke, club owner, jazz musician, and former adventurer. He's rendered here in a Chester Gould-ish style by Lester B. Portly. Here's Rooke's stats in WaRP:

Mingus Rooke
Famous former adventure; Owner of the Blue Hound club in Solace

Black man, mid-50s, gone a little soft since retiring.

Attack: 2 dice
Defense: 3 dice

Jazz Musician, 6 dice (jazz slang)
In the Know, 3 dice - Well-connected to the adventuring, music, and magical communities. (he's always got a story)
Musical Magic, 3 dice - Can great various spell-like effects via music. Must be able to play his horn or another instrument to use this ability. Range is generally 2 x die roll yards, though this may vary with effect, at the referee's discretion..
Not as Young as He Used to Be - Any exertion that goes over 2 rounds results in a penalty die.

Carnival of Lost Souls

In last night's Weird Adventures game, the gang (this time consisting of Cornelius, Diabolico, and Loone) returned to the Carnival Pandemonium--but in daylight this time. Sounds came from the carnival that suggested it was doing brisk business.

Many things in the carnival seemed design to mess with them (well, because they were). Music and sounds were recorded, not real, but the record player they emanated from wasn't working either. The escaping prisoner targets in the shooting gallery had the faces of our heroes.

They decided to take a ride on the "Tomb of Horrors" ride. After passing several gruesome scenes of simulated torturer, they came upon a very real undead gunslinger. Amazingly, Diabolico managed to get a shot off before Deadeye and blow his gun hand off! Cornelius grabbed his other pistol with his bullwhip. The defeated Deadeye disappeared into darkness.

The gang followed and found a door. It was like a stage prop: just a door and frame attached to nothing. He could be opened from either side and led to...some place else. A place with three more doors. After some investigation, the gang stepped through.

Each of the three chose a door and opened it in unison. Colorful smoke came billowing out, and they were unable to escape it. Loone found himself in a another space with the wounded Deadeye trying to bandage his hand. Marzo showed up to tempt Loone: and to possibly absorb Deadeye into the palm of his hand. "The price of failure," he said.

Loone wasn't about to trade his soul. He managed to confuse Marzo momentarily with his mental powers. Long enough to escape back into the first room, at any rate.

Diabolico wound up in a space with Polly the Rubber Girl reclining on a couch. Diabolico might as well have been Boris this whole adventure. He started shooting without so much as a "hello." Polly was quick, though and wound up with her thighs around his neck, strangling him. Diabolico still managed to put a bullet in her and free himself. After that, it was easy to finish her off.

Cornelius found himself facing Chandoo the Mystic. The old man was seated in the lotus position, seemingly an easy target. When Cornelius tried to put his whip around the mystic's neck. He found that he wasn't anywhere close to where he appeared to be. He was using Eastern techniques to cloud Cornelius's mind! He made his whip appear to be a snake and Cornelius dropped it. His keenly honed senses allowed him to draw enough of a bead that he was able to wing his assailant. The mystic attacked more directly, but Cornelius was luckier and did him in. Chandoo's fake accent of the mysterious East dropped as he was dying.

Cornelius refused Marzo's offer and was released. Diabolico refused by shooting the Viscount. Again, Marzo seemed only mildly discomforted, so Diabolico punched him.  Marzo responded by putting a stilletto in Diabolico's gut.

Gravely wounded, Diabolico was tossed out the door to his friends. An examined showed what appeared to be blood on his clothes, but no actual wound! Loone used his mental abilities to help Diabolico realize the injury was illusionary.

By the time that was done, the doors were gone. The carnival now seemed utterly mundane and run down.

Marzo was gone.

Meet Carnival Pandemonium

After our last Weird Adventures game, Cornelius Doyle and Don Diabolico went to do some research to find out more about their foes. This is what they found out:

Marzo, Orlando Vincenzo Rodomonte Visconte di, the assumed name of an adventurer, courtier, thaumaturgist (or charlatan), and likely confidence trickster active in the latter half of the 58th Century. Some sources place his origins much earlier, but this may be only so much propaganda. His detractors appear accurate in their assertion that he was no nobleman of the Vitellian League, at least in the sense that no viscounty of Marzo is known to have existed.

Marzo’s primary attribute seems to have been his ability to insinuate himself into the courts of various Ealderdish nobles their his theatrical use of magical power. He has been derided as a mere illusionist by some, while others have embraced that mantle and championed him as the secret founder of the Brotherhood of Illusion.

Marzo’s fame was such that even long after his likely death he figures into legend. Several adventurers over the past half century have claimed to have encountered Marzo who sought to act as an agent for infernal powers looking to acquire souls. Whether these encounters are mere fabulations, the actions of pretenders, or brushes with an immortal magician are the subject of debate. [from The Practioners of the Art (Roodmas, 5802).]

Deadeye: Stage name of Jonas Early, a sharpshooter in Bucksnort Bill's Wild West Show. He toured with the show from 5833 until his death in 5838. Early died from infection after having been shot in a quarrel over a gambling debt. After display at the Wild West Show, his body disappeared before he could be buried. During life his life, rumor attributed Early's skill with firearms to a pact he had made with a devil--a rumor Early did nothing to discourage. [from The Wild West Shows and Their Performers (Weedle, 5877).]

Polly the Rubber Girl: Polly Ethel Leane was born in 5844. Gifted with unusual flexibility, she became a contortionist and dancer, performing in vaudeville theaters in the City. She died of an ether overdose in 5869. [from The Vaudevillians (Smoal, 5882).]

Carnival of Evil

In last night's Weird Adventures game, gentleman thief Don Diabolico and former lion tamer Cornelius Doyle found themselves confronting the supernatural as just a duo.

It started with a message from Philo Markham, a confidence man and friend of Diabolico. The two went to meet him at a waterfront warehouse full of circus and carnival equipment. Despite the fact they heard what seemed to be his voice, Markham was found dead. A knife in his back pinned a flyer to him: an advertisement for the Carnival Pandemonium in Rookend.

Investigation revealed there was a Carnival there, but it seemed old and abandoned--until they stepped inside and the lights came on. They entered through the giant head of a laughing devil. A show began courtesy of one Viscount Orlando Vincenzo Rodomonte Marzo. He admitted to killing Markham to lure "Team Victory" to him, and he expressed disappointment only two of them had come.

Diabolico shot the over-theatric murderer, only to have Marzo rise to his feet again after invoking the intercession of dark powers. Cornelius and Diabolic thought it best to retreat at that point, but the way was blocked by zombie roustabouts!

Our heroes were forced to retreat into the big tent. There, Marzo appeared again and introduced his confederates: the undead pistoleer Deadeye, Chaundoo the Mystic of the East, and Polly the Rubber Girl. He invited Diabolico and Cornelius to join their fellowship.  He promised his employers would grant them all the money and power they desired; they need only sign over their immortal souls.

Cornelius and Diabolico made a break for it. They narrowly avoided a trapdoor on the way out. Once out of the tent, the carnival appeared deserted again.  They headed for their car and home, determined to find out what they could about this new foe.

Blank

"The Blank" is the name given to an individual (or more likely, a series of individuals) responsible for sporadic crimes in the City. The Blank appears as the outline of a person; otherwise they are completely white and featureless, like a figure left unfinished in the painting of the world.

In addition his unusual appearance, the Blank is resistant to harm and capture. He walks away from gunfire or other assaults that should have been fatal. Magic likewise seems unable to effect him directly.

What is unknown to the authorities (and perhaps everyone but the person who currently has it) is that the blank effect is the result of a magic item:  A silvery dinner suit, flashy like something a stage performer might wear. When the suit is donned, the person wearing it can watch in a mirror as they "fade" into the blank.

Attempts to discover the suits origins prove fruitless. The tag is worn, but appears to list it's manufacturer as "NOX." No clothier of that name is known.

In addition to making the wearer unrecognizable (and having the side effect of distorting their voice), the wearer has AC 0 and takes half damage from any mundane weapon. Magical weapons deal "normal" weapon damage without any bonuses. The wearer is also immune to any directly aimed magic. Magics that deal damage through a physical effect (like a fireball) can effect the wearer at half damage.

While wearing the suit an individual is able to perceive the etheric layers of the Material plane and with experience, the near Astral. The kaleidoscope of lurid colors and outre images can be highly disorienting until a wearer become use to it.

Weird Days in the City

In the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide, Gygax famously said that you can't can't have a meaningful campaign unless strict time records are kept. With that in mind, here's the basic timeline of the event in my G+ Weird Adventures, with special emphasis on the rumors and reports that might be of interest to others.

The current year is 3888. (For more on the calendar of the City, go here.)

3887
26 Swelter: From the City Inquirer:

"MANIAC CAPTURED! ELDRITCH VALLEY SLEEPS SAFELY AGAIN: Tranquility has been restored to the usually quiet communities of the Eldritch Valley.  Fennix Orgo, the so-called 'Shrike' killer, has been apprehended by law enforcement and returned to the Blufton Sanitarium, where he is to spend the rest of his days.  Orgo was responsible for at least seven deaths by brutal, bestial means, including the murder of Jon Wyllard by impalement--a grisly deed which earned him his nickname."

The Shrike will escape again in a little over a year.

Redfall: From the tabloids:

"It seems John Vandemaur, heir to the Vandemaur's fortune, has scandalized his family and the Old Money set in general after taking up with a former dime-a-dance gal from Hoborxen.  Matriarch Urania's blue blood has supposedly been set to a boil by her eldest's discussion of putting a ring on this unfamilied lass from across the river."

John Vandemaur marries this girl from Hoborxen, Viviane, after a short courtship.

3888
3 Bluster: From the tabloid The Tattler:

"SOCIETY GAL GOES GHOUL: A 'Wild' debutante has been getting a taste of the City's night-life, all right--unless the nightlife's tasting her!  We hear she's quite taken with a beau of the ghoulish persuasion.  Is this a case of love being blind?  Or maybe it's just too dark in Undertown?" 

The story refers to Sue Ann Wilde whose doomed love with a brooding ghoul hoodlum, Dean, will only survive a little over a week from this point.

16 Bluster: A group of operatives working for Celebrity Private Investigator Heward Kane are hired by Viviane Vandemaur to retrieve the body of her departed husband from Barrow Island (the beginning of the events of the adventure "The Night City").

Ripened: Cyrus Westerly died 10 years ago, but in accordance with his wishes, his estate has yet to be settled. Westerly’s lawyer and executor, Rothger Croston, has summoned the five potential heirs to the remote and decaying Westerly Mansion on the Eldritch, north of the City. It’s rumored the will has some eccentric provisions (So begins the events of the adventure "Night of the Shrike.")

After the positive press Don Diabolico, Boris Brovsky, and Erskine Loone get from solving the Westerly case, Heward Kane makes them a franchise of his agency and sets them up with their own office near Pentacle Park.

Soon after, the events of the adventure "Heart of the Machine" begin.

2 Harvest: From the City Herald:

"SOON PLANES MAY FLY THEMSELVES: Hew Hazzard, owner and chief officer of Zephyrus Aerocraft, announced the appointment of Silas Atwill to lead the coordination of his Automata Division. Hazzard spoke of his vision of automata flown aircraft and flying devices that could aid mankind in a myriad of ways. 

Dr Atwill has been an engineer with Zephyrus Aircraft for several years and a member of Mr. Hazzard's "inner circle" of innovators."

3 Harvest: Erness "Snuffy" Smite, caretaker at the Greasy Lake Scrapyard, is found dead along with his wife and two teenage children. There is evidence that they all suffered from wereratism.

7 Harvest: Zephyrus Aerocraft is assaulted by automata.

The Machineries of Night

In last night's G+ Weird Adventures game, our heroes returned to Zephyrus Aerocraft to find the place had been attacked by more automata. Diabolico, impulsive as ever, drove his car into one of the tarrying constructs, destroying it and catching a second on fire--but also destroying his roadster!

Hazzard told them the cultists and their automata dug up from underneath his lab.  They broke into the geodesic dome structure and stole the heartspring.  They now had all they needed to resurrect the Machineries of Night.

The team was determined to go after them.  Hazzard supplied them each with an experimental electroblaster rifle to destroy automata. They only had 5 charges each. He also gave them a couple of concussive grenades and a grappling hook gun.

Following the tunnel they encountered a few Eisenmensch, which they made short work of.  Finally, they arrive in a large chamber where the automata were dumping the Machineries of Night (brought from Greasy Lake, no doubt) from their holds into a pit. The mysterious Master stood above it with the dodecahedron. More Eisenmensch were on hand, as well. The glittering, minute cogs of the Machineries moved as if stirred by dust devils that began to grow larger.

The gang went on the attack, blasting Eisenmensch and automata with the electroblasters. Not being use to the weapons, they missed as often as they hit and soon they were out of shots.  Still, the Eisenmensch weren't a much for them and were soon down. But the Master remained.

Playing a hunch, Loone confronted the Master about the attempted murder of Carmody, calling the mysterious figure "Olimpia." With face-mask removed, the Master was revealed as Carmody's beautiful automaton. She claimed that Carmody had not been murdered but had surrendered his body willing to gain an immortal artificial body in service of the Machineries of Night. His brain was traumatized by the procedure and he lost his memory.

In the ensuing battle, Boris shot the dodecahedron from her hand and Diabolico managed to turn a botched attack into a chance to grab the device. Olimpia attacked him to retrieve it.  Shots from Boris and Cornelius damaged and distracted her, allowing Diabolico the chance to snatch her energy rod from her.

He used it's disintegration beam to destroy the dodecahedron (greatly wounding himself in the ensuing explosion) while Boris killed Olimpia with another shot.

Battered and weary, the gang turned the technology over to Hazzard. He also promised to take care of Carmody's brain.  Our heroes were left to worry what Hazzard might do with all this, but they didn't have a better option.  And there was the fact he promised to pay them and replace Diabolico's car.

It's a hell of a way to make a living!

House of Fear

Mingus Rooke told them there was an apartment building in Solace where another angelic horn could be found. Rooke had used Gabriel's to halt the Machineries of the Night before. Our heroes thought that might be their ticket to doing so again.

In last night's Halloween edition of our Weird Adventures campaign, Boris and Cornelius found themselves trapped inside the building with Erskine and Diabolico on the outside. The building was sealed; all of it's inhabitants were trapped, except for the one old man who ran out raving when they opened the door--and promptly died.

The buildings residents were being held captive by an extradimensional monster: a flowing, translucent blob creature. It seemed to in and out of the Material Plane. Boris and Cornelius first encountered it in the basement, but it moved around the building with impunity.

They went through the apartments, one by one. There were seductive, aging flappers, a  crazy old man trying to cast a banishing ritual, a room full of hostile golliwog dolls, and other eccentric inhabitants. Eventually, they found the weird horn in the hands of a jazz musician. Cornelius blew the horn.  It knocked him unconscious, but blew open the door so they were able to escape.

Mingus Rooke was waiting for them. He revealed the horn actually belonged to a fallen angel.  He said it wouldn't be able to help them destroy the Machineries of the Night--and the forces of Heaven would be coming for it soon, in any case. Rooke had known this from the beginning and tricked them into retrieving it and freeing the building's inhabitants.

Rooke did give them a little advice that would help them, though: destroy the dodecahedron and the heart-string.  The latter they had; the other...

Automata for the People

In the City today, automata are mostly in the hands of the rich, but the proponents of the technology hope that one day they will be labor-saving devices for all humanity. Since automata have been a focus of our current G+ Weird Adventures game, I though it might be a good time to talk about them a bit here.

The history of automata goes back to the golems and clockwork curiosities of antiquity. When golems relied on an animating spirit to make them move, clockwork devices were often given life by strictly mechanical properties. Modern automata engineering borrows from both these practices. Automata have mechanic joints and internal machinery to give them a wider range of applications but often rely on a vitalizing element like golems.

Theoretical advances over the past thirty years have allowed vast improvements in powering automata.  While the Steam Men of half a century ago were dependent on boilers full of coal, and the clockwork animals of Ealderdish imperial courts had springs that needed winding, the modern marvels of Mikola Donander and Hew Hazzard often utilize power broadcast through the air. So far this broadcast power is short-ranged and possibly susceptible to thaumaturgic blocking, but in the future, whole cities might run on it.

Even more advanced automata harness the power of the sun itself.  Tiny sparks of pure alchemical fire, generated in heavily shielded atomic athanors, allowed the primal force of creation to be used as a power source--and perhaps a "seed" for the germination of a living soul. The City's protector, the Titan, is the only automata known to be powered in such a way, but the future of this technology is truly limitless.

Boris and the Spider

Our Weird Adventures campaign continued last night, with Dungeon of Signs Gustie subbing in for Chris Sims. After battling the automata last issue, the gang was more determined than ever to find the "heartstring" of the alien dodecahedron to deny the enemy the ability to bring the Machineries of Night back to life. 

While Hazzard worked on a psychic tracking device attuned to the Machineries' frequency, the gang took a key they found inside Carmody's automaton "Guy Friday," Laurence, and went to check out Carmody's Paladin Hill brownstone. There was a secret lab under the stairs (which the key opened). It was guarded by a spider-like automaton that shot lightning out of it's single eye!

There was no way past the spider. Luckily. Boris made a trick shot and disrupted the wall-mounted switch for the broadcast power.  With the spider down, they searched the room and found parts for a gynoid automaton (supporting their theory about Olimpia), the original manuscript of the Machineries of Night manifesto they first found at Atwill's place--and a golden, dendritic thing they took to be the heartstring.

After striking a deal to sell Carmody's revolutionary automata designs to Hazzard and giving him the heartstring for safe-keeping, the group headed uptown to Solace to see if they could meet with the man who defeated the Machineries of Night before: Mingus Rooke.

At his night-club, the Blue Hound, Rooke told them about the machine invasion of Hardluck: The Machineries of Night fell from the sky and used the people and things there as raw material to build more of itself.  It might have overrun the whole world, if Rooke hadn't blown the horn of the angel Gabriel and stopped it.

When pressed, he told them he knows where another angelic horn is: an apartment building right there in Solace! An apartment building in the grip of something evil...  

Previously...

Our Weird Adventures game got postponed another week.  So memories don't get dim during the hiatus, I thought I'd review where things stand with the major NPCs in this tale:

William Carmody: A brilliant scientist working on automata.  He was in possession of an alien artifact that appears to have been related to the Machineries of Night.  He's now a brain in a jar with a bad memory and a automaton caretaker.

Olimpia Kapec: Carmody's missing fiancee and lab assistant.  Maybe Carmody's would-be murderer's nabbed her?  So why can no trace of her be found except for a few photos?

Hew Hazzard: Aviation industrialist.  He helped our heroes fight off attacking automata. They could use an ally like.  Still, how far can they trust him?

Silas Atwill: Hazzard's chief of Automata Research--and secretly an acolyte of the cloaked and black armor wearing Master of the machine uprising. The Master disintegrated him rather than let him be captured.  He had a copy of a strange manifesto referencing the Machineries of Night in in his home.

Eisenmensch: Men made more (and perhaps less) than human in the service of their fatherland.  Some of these disgruntled cyborg veterans seem to have been recruited into the Master's cause: transforming all of humanity into machines.

Machineries of Night: Is this the black mass of tiny cogs and wheels beneath Greasy Lake?  The presence that seems to make the psychic Loone a bit queasy.  When the Machineries first invaded it took blowing Gabriel's heavenly horn to defeat them.  Is all they need the complete dodecahedron to live again?

The Master: Thin, with a hidden face and distorted voice. dark heart of the mystery...