Warlord Wednesday: The Obsession

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"The Obsession"

Warlord #112 (December 1986)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Art by Ron Randall

Synopsis: Machiste has regained the throne of Kiro and has the adulation of its people--all except Mariah. She can’t get Morgan off her mind and begins to hatch a plan to act on those yearnings.

In the inland sea, Morgan and Shakira are making good time in the stolen aqua-sled until they’re attacked by a sea monster. They eject from the sled after its canopy punches a hole in the monster’s head.

Our heroes wash up on shore. They’re only just getting their legs under them, when a group of horsemen attack. Morgan is knocked out and captured, while Shakira is mistaken for an abducted princess.

Mariah visits the swordsmith that made her first Skartarian blade and gets a replacement. On her way home, an old woman approaches her in the marketplace and offers her a love charm. She even says Mariah won’t have to pay for it unless it works for her.

Later, Mariah sneaks out of the bed while Machiste’s sleeping and heads out to find a way to get to Morgan. She visits a wizard:

After haggling, he casts a spell to transport her to Morgan.

Meanwhile, Morgan has been taken in chains back to the horseman’s city. There Shakira is greeted as Princess Orana, who was being held for ransom. Thinking quickly, Shakira tells them Morgan was one of the kidnappers but had a change of heart and helped her. She commands he be freed.

The real kidnappers, a Baron and his cronies, are perplexed as to how the princess could have returned. The Baron needed the princess alive to show him the location of her father’s treasure vaults, but he needed to keep her from her coronation, so he (the next in line of succession) could take the throne. The Baron has to of his lackeys ride out to check on the princess to see if this new arrival is an imposter. 

Morgan sees them go and gets curious, so he follows them. They go to the cave where they've got the princess stashed. She bashes one in the head with a stick, but they overpower her. When Morgan show’s up, the tables are turned. As expected, she looks a lot like Shakira.

As they ride back to the palace, she feels Morgan in on Baron Jergmav’s plan. Shakira’s in danger and is totally unaware. That is until the assassin’s attack. It’s not Princess Orana they’re up against, though:

Shakira runs out of the palace in cat form as Shakira and Orana are coming in. The assassin’s are on her heels. They accuse Morgan of being a warlock and Shakira his familiar. Morgan’s response:

Morgan makes short work of the assassins. The Baron tries taking Orana hostage, but Morgan just shoots him.

With Orana safely crowned, Shakira and Morgan ride out of the city. They haven’t gone far when they encounter a familiar figure on the road: Mariah. She shows Morgan the charm:

Things to Notice:

• This issue has a Watchmen ad on the cover.
• In the last few Fleisher issues (and this one) Morgan refers to Shakira as "youngster," which is odd.

Where it Comes From:
The main plot of this issue is inspired by The Prisoner of Zenda.

Meet Team Victory

How about an art post for a Monday? Here's Lester B. Portly's great Chester Gould-esque rendition of the current characters in my online Weird Adventures game.

Expect to see more of Lester's work in this style in the Weird Adventures Companion!

Wings of War

Here's another obscure Star Trek species for Starships & Spacemen:

SKORR
Encountered: 2d4 (5d10)
Movement: 120' (40') (F) 480'(120')
Intelligence: Average
Psionic Potential: 4d4, inactive
Hits: 1d8
Armor: -1
Combat Skill: 12
Save: L1
Attacks: 1
Damage: By weapon or 1d4 (2 claws)
Morale: 10
XP: 10

The Skorr are avian humanoids found in several systems in the constellation Hercules. They are six-limbed beings, possessing a functional pair of wings. Skorr are taller than humans on the average with a more gracile body type. They are even less massive than expected for their physiques due the large number of hollow bones in their skeletal structure.

Though not a Federation member in the mid-23rd Century, the Skorr are a member of civilized galactic society. Two centuries prior, however, they were a warlike and expansionistic. They were capable of interstellar travel and bred rapidly, producing 1 to 3 eggs in a clutch that were rapidly aged in communal incubators.

The Great Teacher Alar brought a new religion and way of life to the Skorr people, and they abandon their warlike ways. Alar's brain patterns were recorded shortly prior to his death in an indurite sculpture known as "The Soul of Skorr." It is their holiest relic. It's theft once lead the Skorr to begin marshalling for holy war against all of galactic civilization. Luckily, the Soul was returned before hostilities broke out.

Notes: The Skorr first appeared in the Star Trek Animated Series episode "The Jihad." The location of their homeworld was never mentioned, but since the Skorr are virtually identical to the Aurelians who Worlds of the Federation says hail from Xi Herculis, it seems reasonable to believe their related and colocal.

The Party Dies at the End

John Dies at the End is a "horror comedy" from Don Coscarelli based on the book of the same name. It's supposedly going to get a theatrical release this year, but I decided not to chance it ever playing in this podunk town, so I watched it on Amazon's video on demand.

Spoiler: The title is misleading--but in a way, it reflects the fractured narrative of at least part of the film. The plot can be summarized pretty easily: Two slackers wind up taking a strange drug ("soy sauce") they got from a fake Jamaican that expands their consciousness and allows them to perceive and combat extradimensional, supernatural horrors, lurking in our world. The film is part trippy drug narrative, part body horror, and part black comedy like if Evil Dead 2 was a bit more like Clerks.

It's also great rpg fodder. I think you could easily get a game of Unknown Armies out of it, or maybe an unusual game of Call of Cthulhu. It's got a premise and setting in the Lovecraftian mode (or maybe Clark Ashton Smithian) with totally unlovecraftian heroes and tone.

It would also be interesting to run a modern D&Dish game like this: A weird drug opens the doors to Narnia (or Moria) located right here but hidden by virtue being on a different vibrational frequency. Maybe under the influence of the drug, slacker twenty-somethings brave the maze co-occurring with the steam tunnels beneath their university and do battle with very deadly monsters--and try not to freak out in the process?

Send in the Clones

For Starships & Spacemen, here's an obscure species from the background of Star Trek: The Motion Picture:

Requirements: CON 12
Ability Adjustments: CON +2, STR+1, CHA -1
Skill Adjustments: Combat +1, Contact -1, Technical -1
Metabolism: Iron Based

Arcturians are a Federation member species from a densely populated world in the Alpha Boötis system. They’re a militaristic people, valuing unity and discipline above individuality. Beyond military service in the Federation, Arcturian mercenaries serve throughout the galaxy.

Arcturians have reddish gray or purplish gray skin that droops in distinct wrinkles and folds, and deep set eyes. They have two sexes (though they’re often difficult for other species to tell apart), but Arcturians have given up sexual reproduction. Instead, all Arcturians are clones of a select few genetic lines.

Despite their military nature, Arcturians don’t revel in combat. Many display a degree of emotional restraint reminiscent of Vulcans, and they're often stereotyped as a dour people.

It’s unlikely the Arcturians' homeworld is the product of natural evolution: Their star is too metal poor. Federation scientists speculate that it was engineered by some super-advanced civilization in the distant past. Given their clone nature, some have speculated that the Arcturians themselves were engineered by this same race.

For more Trek conversions, check out our S&S Star Trek rpg group on G+.

Note: Arcturians just appeared in the background of ST:TMP and have never been featured prominently. They don't even show up in any of the Trek rpgs. What little information has been published about them comes from the costume designers for the film. See Memory Alpha.

Warlord Wednesday: Terror of the Inland Sea

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"Terror of the Inland Sea"

Warlord #111 (November 1986)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Pencils by Ron Randall

Synopsis: Morgan and Shakira are flying above an inland sea with the flight belts stolen from Skyra III. They’re still on their quest to find the wizard that can save Jennifer.

Suddenly, their belts begin to fail. They plummet into the water below. Beneath the surface, danger is lurking:

Morgan fights the fishmen as long as he can, but unable to breath, he loses consciousness.

Meanwhile, Mariah and Machiste are fighting for their lives in a sewage drain against the forces of the usurper of Kiro. But there are other tensions, too:

Morgan wakes out among other humans in the undersea city of Arscana, founded by Atlantean dissidents and runaway slaves.It was pulse emissions of their energy dome that disrupted the flight belts, apparently. The Arscanans had managed to save Morgan, but Shakira is in the hands of their enemies, the Balskraks.

Morgan wants to go after her, but the Arscanans don’t want to let him. Given that he was using a flight belt of their former masters, they don’t really trust him. Morgan has to fight his way past them. He commandeers one of their undersea sleds and flees the city.

Meanwhile, Shakira has been given a breathing device by the Balskraks. Sure enough, they plan to sacrifice her to monstrous Kraarg--but Shakira’s just not into it:

She escapes the guards, but winds up in the throne room of their ruler!

One good thing comes of that: King Raznor thinks she’s too pretty to give to Kraarg. Unfortunately, he plans to have his surgeon’s turn her into a water-breather and keep her forever.

Morgan arrives but he’s captured, too. As predicted, the balskraks do with him what barbaric cultures always seem to do in Skartaris: They force him to fight a monster in an arena--Kraarg!

Morgan manages to cut off one of Kraarg’s eyestalks then kill him, but loses his weapon. The balskraks plan to mob Morgan in revenge, but Shakira escapes and brings Morgan a new trident. They battle their way back to the sled, barring a gate with the trident to deter their pursuers, and make their escape.

Meanwhile, Marriah and Machiste are captured and brought to N’Dosma. It turns out its a ruse though, and the real Machiste is disguised as one of the guards. He beats N’Dosma, then dispenses with the usurper--by throwing him out a window!

Things to Notice:

• The Arscanans don't really serve a purpose in the story beyond providing exposition--and they dress in pretty bad 1980s style.
• Shakira spends a fair amount of time lampshading the origins of the Balshrak and their ability to speak an intelligible language.

Where it Comes From:
Kraarg is  fanciful sea monster, but he resembles the anomalocaridids a bit.

Happy New Year!

It's a new year in the City, too--at least for my online game. 5889 brings the World Exposition to the City, and probably other interesting things, as well. For that new year dawning, everyone should think those forgotten (even by themselves) heroes who fight every new year's eve to save the Material Plane from chaos. It looks like they won again.

In our world, it's been a good year for me in gaming. I've got to enjoy Erik's Wampus Country, Chris's Hill Cantons, Evan's Dark Country, Jeremy's Oriaz, Humza's Bieth and renditions of Call of Cthulhu and Star Trek gamemastered by Robert and Peter, respectively. (And I'm sure I'm leaving something out there, but it's not intentional!)

My own Weird Adventures game has been going well both on G+ and face to face. I'd like to think the players: Chris (Diabolico), Patrick (Creskin), Tim (Boris), Michael (Loone), Lester (Doyle), and Peter (Lenny) online, and Jim (Prof. Pao), Eric (Jacques), Bob (Rob), Gina (Rue), and Heather (Sarah) for helping bring the City and the Strange New World to life.

Here's to another good year for everyone, gaming and otherwise!