Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Green Hell (part 4)

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: The Green Hell (1980)
(Dutch: De Groene Hel)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

The mutants begin dancing, presumably before killing Ember and Storm. Suddenly, there's a loud noise and large begins rushing into the area, washing away most of the mutants, and pouring into the chasm where the ships are.

Storm leads Ember into one of the hulks. He finds what he's looking for: a pair of old spacesuits.Donning the suits, Storm and Ember are safe for the moment. Then, a hatch opens:

The frogmen shoot our heroes with something that knocks them out. They care them down into an underground tunnel. Entering an airlock, they move their wetsuits and reveal themselves to be blue skinned humanoids.

Storm wakes up on a veranda surrounded by lush vegetation. He turns and looks out over an advanced alien city. He hears Ember call his name and runs into the next room where a one of the blue humanoids seems has her on a table and is monitoring her with some sort of device. Storm pushes the man away and they're about to fight when:

The supervisor gestures and their surrounds change to a scene of a space battle. Storm realizes its all a hologram. The visuals reveal a story beginning hundreds of thousands of years ago as the Supervisor narrates: The planet Azuria became overpopulated and its people spread out among the stars and conquered many worlds, including Earth. The Azurians established hidden colonies underground and in high mountains. They took control of the planet's weather. They wiped the minds of the remnant human population and destroyed much of their civilization, reverting them to savagery. As humans civilization rebounded, spies (like Toriander) assured that the Azurians could monitor and control the rate of technological process. The mutants protected the graveyard of ships from prying eyes.

Storm and Ember are threats to this order and their brain must be erased. Storm's not having that.

With the Supervisor as a hostage, the two get back to the airlock and make their escape. They sabotage the equipment before they go. The Azurians swear to catch track them down and destroy them, while Storm vows to take back his world.

END OF VOLUME 4

Assault on the Candy Temple

Last night, our Land of Azurth game continued with our heroes deciding to enter the temple ziggurat of the tribesman of the Candy Isle where they were sure Gwendolin Goode and the Pirate Queen Black Iris were being held.

by Dyson Logos

This map by Dyson Logos served as the temple. In this case, it was made of huge blocks of fudge and built into the side of a chocolate volcano.

Shade the Ranger and the Frox Rogue, Waylon, snuck up and dispatched four gummy guards in Area A. Two outside and two inside, despite Shade's initial qualms about killing them. When the others arrived, they noted paintings on the wall showing the Candy People being led to the temple area by a mysterious glowing man.

The room to the left in Area B contained a baptismal font of cholocate and containers of chocolate dust. Steathing past the larger room, they did peek in past the candy frond-weaved door to see too acolytes post-preparation in the other room in the midst of some ritual. The didn't enter the small side room at that time, but later they found out it was the priest's cell--and it contained the Confection Perfection.

Area C had a large ritual room open in the back into the volcano and a fall of liquid chocolate with an altar in front of it. The room was empty at the current time. In the side room, they discovered a a giant-sized sarcophagus that Waylon and Erekose assumed was full of treasure, but in fact held a ogre-sized, creature wrapped in gum and fruit strip bandages. In was actually a giant adherer, the ancient king Goo-Gum. A number of fire spells finally defeated here, but not before guards were roused from the next room and the priest and his acolytes came from the level above.

A lucky thunderstrike spell obliterated the tribal warriors, and the warriors made short work of the priests--not before Kairon the Sorcerer got hold personed, though.

In the next room, they found the two captives they were looking for. They managed to imtimidate the remaining guards (who knew what carnage the party had wrecked in the adjacent room) who fled to get reinforcements from the village.

Dangerously low on spells, the party made a break for it back up through the temple. When Black Iris mentioned the Confection Perfection, they sent an invisible Waylon back to retreive it only to watch a mysterious mage in magenta beat him to it:

by algenfleger

Waylon made it back to his friends with only a curvy athame (of real metal, not candy!) to show for his effort. Keeping ahead of the angry tribesfolk, our heroes beat a haste retreat around the mountain path and made it back to their ship.

The question is: To get their payment, will they force Gwendolin to return to her parents against her will?

Alternate Ravenlofts

Friday, Jack Shear brought to my attention an idea Kreg Mosier proposed of a Southern Gothic Ravenloft. Which is a great idea. It also got me to thinking about other settings where Ravenloft could be repurposed:

Planet of Vampires

A commercial cargo-hauler spacecraft responds to a call from the Demeter from a nearby planetoid, and finds an planet shrouded in eerie mists. The Demeter's crew have undergone a frightening transformation into the undead. At the center of all this strangeness is a weirdly earth-like castle and its master.

Inspirations: Planet of Vampires, Alien, and the Star Trek episode "Catspaw."

The Creepy Castle

Teenagers returning from Spring Break have their car break down in an eerie fog somewhere in Appalachia. Going the the forbidding European-style castle for help seems like a good idea...

Inspirations: any number of horror films including Texas Chainsaw Massacre; Scooby Doo, and for more of a tripped out euro-feel, things like Nuda per Satana and Requiem pour un Vampire.

A Sampling of the Hydra Sampler

The Hydra Cooperative is proud to be supporting ConTessa and Gen Con. As part of that port we're in the process of putting together a sampler of Hydra products and upcoming products. Above is our tenative cover and here's the Strange Stars OSR page I put together for the sampler:

Space:1977, or Set Coordinates for Planet Funhouse Dungeon

It occurs to me there's never really been a sci-fi equivalent of D&D. (At least back in the day. Maybe someone's doing it now, and I'm just unaware.) By D&D I mean D&D of OG (Original Greyhawk) Gygaxian mode: a stupid, freewheeling, game of exploration that borrows promiscuously from genre media (of multiple genres) without bothering to particularly try to emulate any of it. Traveller is too interested in emulating specific source material and is more serious; Space Opera is goofy enough, but it still wants to be that sci-fi thing you like (whichever one it is) rather than being not any of those things but wearing their clothes. Metamorphosis Alpha and Gamma World get the vibe, but their scopes are more limited.

What I'm talking about is something a bit Vancian, definitely picaresque, where exploration for the purpose of profit is the order of the day. The character archetypes are from all over. An adventuring party might look like the ragtag protagonists in Battle Beyond the Stars (except that John Boy guy would be a Jedi in training and the lizard man would be Tars Tarkas) and act like a more disreputable Serenity crew. Only Silver Age comics truly encompass the level of crazy alien worlds ought to embody--given the appropriate figleaf of Gygaxian realism, of course. I figure adventures would often go down like an episode of Lost in Space, except more people would die. And then the Robot would take their stuff.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Green Hell (part 3)

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: The Green Hell (1980)
(Dutch: De Groene Hel)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

Storm rushes in before Toriander can murder anyone else. He kicks the gun from the killer's hand and beats him up. Toriander calls for his cronies to help, but Ugly Brute stops them on the stairs. Storm brings Toriander out and Ugly Brute tosses him down into the lot of them.

Storm only wants one thing from Toriander: Where did the space helmet come from? Toriander gets very afraid. He says he can't tell or they'd kill him!

As if on cue, lightning flashes and thunder sounds. Toriander begins to run down the walkway. A bolt of lightning lands very near him. He runs again, crying out for mercy. He falls down on his knees, pleading with the skies:

Toriander is ash. Storm and the others wonder at the lightning that seems to have targeted him. They soon have bigger problems as blasts of lightning start destroying Carefree City. As the people fall into the grow below, the vines seem to go alive and attack them, while they are pelted by hail and driving rain.

Ember falls. Ugly Brute is impaled on a giant, poison thorn and Storm falls too. The survivors of the collapse are being killed by the swamp itself. Ember finds Storm and the two manage to find shelter in a cavernous interior formed of trees. Suddenly, a net drops on them--they are captured by the green mutants Ember met before!

What's more, they see something surprising over the edge of a nearby cliff:

TO BE CONTINUED

5e Retro Character Record Sheet

A couple of people asked if I was going to release a blank version of the B/X-ish 5e record sheet I'm using for the Mortzengersturm pregens. I hadn't thought about it before, but I seems like a good idea. A proper pdf will arrive at some point, but here's the front and back with the Mortzengersturm elements removed.

More Pregen PC Portraits

Here's more great Jeff Call art for the pregens in my NTRPGcon game of Mortzengersturm, The Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak:

First up, ZABRA KABRA, Mistress of the Mystic Arts, Wizard (Enchanter):

And here's MINMAXIMUS THE MIGHTY, Dwarf Fighter (Champion):

Apokolips Now

Yesterday, Evan Elkins requested someone do a hexcrawl of Darkseid's homeworld of Apokolips. Since Apokolips is pretty much a particular vision of hell, it seems like the misery can be safely distilled to a pointcrawl. Here's a quick and dirty rundown:

Overview: Apokolips is whole planet composed of a dirty, hellish industrial complex; it produces the implements of Darkseid's war against New Genesis, but it's main product is misery. The majority of the populace are the Hunger Dogs/Lowlies, normal humans who are the oppressed abject slaves of the Apokolipsian elite.

Locations:
Armagetto: The city-slums surrounding Darkseids palace. Security/military patrols are more common than elsewhere. It's the most "police state" of a planet-wde police state.
Fire Pits: These gigantic opening to the planet's core are fed by trash and refuse from the planet-city.
Happiness Home: Here, Lowlie children are trained and indoctrinated under Granny Goodness to become soldiers in Darkseid's armies.
Necropolis: Subterranean domain of the Dreggs--the undead corpses of the Old Gods acting out their days of glory.
Terrorium: An arena where bloodsports are held.
Tower of Rage: Darkseid's palace/fortress with a big sculpture of his head on top. In addition to the Darkseid himself, his chief torturer Desaad can be found here.
Unholy Sea: Supposedly the "lifeblood of Apokolips, where the souls of the deceased are trapped within its icy waters." The Deep Six likely dwell here.

Non-Unique Adversaries/Encounters:
Aero-Trooper: Solider flying on aero-discs.
Dog Cavalry: Elite troops riding giant mastiffs.
Parademons: Flying, genetically modified troops.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Green Hell (part 2)

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: The Green Hell (1980)
(Dutch: De Groene Hel)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

Storm and the old man put up a good fight, the ape men overwhelm them and knock them out. Looting the cabin, one of them accidentally activates a lighter and sets the whole place on fire. The apes flee leaving Storm and the old man at the mercy of the flames.

Meanwhile, Ember and Toriander arrive in Carefree City. When Ember rebuffs his advances:

Ember slaps his bear and it causes it to rear up and knock Toriander over. She makes her escape into the twisting alleyways of the city. Luckily, she meets a saloon owner named Saran that offers her a place to hide.

Storm awakens to find the cabin burning and an apeman dressed in clothes throwing "Gran'pa's" body over the railing. He moves to attack, but the apeman tells him he was only burying Gran'pa: the souls of the dead find peace when their bodies nourish the forest. He's a friend the old man has dubbed "Ugly Brute." Storm saves the the helmet from the fire and tells Ugly Brute he needs to get to Carefree City to ask Sudden Death Toriander about it. Ugly Brute agrees to take him:

In Carefree City. Saran shows Ember her prosthetic arm which she got thanks to Toriander accidentally firing off his gun. She disguises Ember to look like one of the barmaids to hide her from Toriander:

They catch another barmaid eavesdropping, but they aren't sure what she heard. Downstairs in the bar, Toriander is harangying his mooks about their inability to find Ember. The eavesdropping barmaid slinks up and tells Sudden Death the girl he's after is upstairs.

Around this time, Storm and Ugly Brute arrive in Saran's Saloon. They see Toriander race up the stairs. Toriander finds Saran and Ember. When Storm hears Ember cry out, he runs upstars, too:

TO BE CONTINUED

Azurthite Bestiary: The Arthropods from Nowhere

There is a place that the inhabitants call Zrgztl, but you might as well call it Nowhere because it's here and not here all at the same time. Its inhabitants live out of the phase with the world we know and only seldom interact with it. They are as smart as any normal folk--perhaps a little smarter--in Nowhere, but like a fish's gills don't work so well in the air, the Nowhere creatures' brains can't fully turn the corner to Earth and they become rather stupid here.

They're mean where ever they are.

The arthopods of Nowhere have strangely human-like faces, but they always look angry, like an irate schoolmaster. Even when they are in our world, they are only half here. Their forms are shimmery as heat haze. Their shadows seem more solid; They look like very flat mirrors or thin pools of mercury. The arthopods are always after something, but often they can't remember what it is.

Stats: Use the stats for the Phase Spider.

Sir Clangor's Character Sheet

Last week, showed off a couple of portraits for the pregens for my Mortzengersturm, the Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak game at NTRPGCon. Here's the character sheet for the first one--at least the front side:

Superman v. Batman is Just Ok, But It Made Me Hopeful for Justice League

I saw Superman vs. Batman: Dawn of Justice last night, and while I don't agree with the degree of negativity in a large portion of the reviews (some of which I suspect were at least partially composed before the movie even came out, given the hate it got and Zack Snyder gets in some quarters), a lot of the specific criticisms aren't without merit. The movie tries to do a lot and at times making this particular movie good in this particular moment seems to take a backseat to setting the dominoes in place for later scenes or future films.

The good: It's generally shot well and well-acted. Ben Affleck is both a good Bruce Wayne and a good Batman. The fight scenes in general are good, but particularly in the area of "Batman vs. normal folks" which have suffered in previous Bat films. Amy Adams as Lois Lane (though she doesn't have as much to do as I would like). Lawrence Fishburne as Perry White. The rationale and structure for how the Justice League sequels are established. The fact that Gotham and Metropolis are across a bay from each other (as suggested by numerous Silver and Bronze Age comics). The result of the battle with Doomsday (which I would not have done but is an interesting way to move forward). And Wonder Woman--pretty much everything to do with her:

The not good: The choppy nature of the first half of the film; I realize "show don't tell," but showing too much makes your film a series of vignettes. Some of that could have been handled as exposition. Batman is far from the world's greatest detective here. Luthor has a nicely set up super-villain ridiculous plan (I mean that to be complimentary) in many ways, but his final push that makes Batman go into a reason-abandoning, anti-Superman frenzy is elementary school level subterfuge. Superman standing or floating majestically instead of--well, doing something--too many times; I realize less-active-Superman is a tactic other media has often engaged in to deal with his power level (even in the DC animated stuff, Superman moves awful slooowwww at times for a guy with super-speed and super-reflexes), but it just makes you mad at him. Here his passive broodiness is suppose to convey emotional conflictedness (I guess), but they didn't sell you on that with dialogue. Lex is sometimes perfect in his manic-ness and other times overdone; my biggest complaint regarding him is that no one in story comments on his clearly mentally ill behavior until he reveals his villainous plan.

Pregen PC Portraits

My con game of Mortzengersturm, The Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak (and the published adventure after all) will have pregenerated characters. The awesome Jeff Call has been working on portraits to bring the particular character of the Land of Azurth to them. Here are the first two:

SIR CLANGOR, 

A Knight of the old and famed Order of the Pennon Or.

His blazon is: Or, a chess knight sable.

Fighter (War Master)

MOONFLOWER, 

Wood Elf of the Aldwode

She is reputed to have once killed an Ogre with attitude alone.

Ranger

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Green Hell

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: The Green Hell (1980)
(Dutch: De Groene Hel)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

Storm and Ember fly over the thick jungles of what used to South America in the aero-transport, looking for a place to land so they can find water and food. Suddenly, they are attacked by large vultures looking for a meal. Storm is knocked from the craft.

The birds keep chasing Ember, but she manages to find an opening in the thick canopy and dives down. She looses the birds, but also control of the craft. She jumps free before it crashes into a cliff-side. She falls through the canopy, bouncing off vines and branches until she lands, dazed by relatively unharmed on the mossy floor. She isn't alone:

Meters away, Storm is hanging unconscious on a vine higher in the canopy. An ape-man approaches him and is about to bash Storm's skull with a stone axe, when he's felled by an arrow. The old man who fired the arrow lifts Storm over his shoulder and carries back to his cabin in the trees.

Meanwhile, the green humanoids are advancing on Ember with clear intentions of eating her. Suddenly, they stop they sense someone else coming. They turn and run but one gets shot from behind as they go.

When Storm comes to, the old man introduces himself as Gran'pa and says he's a snake hunter. Storm notices a space helmet that looks just like the one he had (destroyed back in Volume 1). "Gran'pa" tells Storm he got it in Carefree City from a guy named Toriander. He's the only one with guts enough to go scavenging on the ground.

Ember is face to face with her rescuer--"Sudden Death" Toriander. He can't believe his luck finding a beautiful outsider on the ground. He figures he can get a good price for Ember in Carefree City. Brandishing the gun he used to blast the "corpse-eaters" he sets Ember walking.

Meanwhile, the old man explains the lingo of the forest civilization to Storm: The ground floor is the ground, Only crazy folks like Toriander go there, but that's where he found his gun. The third floor is the highest level with the most sunlight--and food. The second floor is where the old man lives. The first floor is inhabited by snakes and ape men. Carefree City is on the third floor.

Storm will need to go there to meet Toriander and find out where he found the helmet. Before they make any further plans:

Ape attack!

TO BE CONTINUED

Hewcrawl Rann

Chris Kutalik wrote a post last week that got me thinking about science fictional (or fantasy) hexcrawl appropriate locals. I've mentioned Krypton before, but that's not the only planet in the DC Universe that has a lot of crazy locations. Check out the map of Rann, above I shared in this old post that has background. Here are some highlights:

Dancing Waters of Athline: A field of high-power geysers whose sprays are shaped by strong winds.
Flaming Sea: Flames sprout from the surface of this body of water.
Illsomar: A ruined city where Nimar, a megalomaniacal, super-intelligent energy being that resembles a gigantic, Bohr-model atom has taken up residence. He is able to animate humanoid figures of metal, stone, and sand to serve him.
Kryys: A city of ice in the polar regions.
Land of A Thousand Smokes: An area containing numerous fumaroles.
Old Reliable: A sinking island in the Sea of Ybss; a source of the rare metal orichalkum.
Samakand: An advanced city that exists outside of conventional spacetime and only appears once every 25 years.

Tower of Rainbow Doom: In the ruined city of Yardana (or Vardana), it is a sacrificial place for the primitive Zoora tribesman. When a switch in thrown in it's central room, concentric flashes of rainbow light surround a throne-like chair and transport anyone or anything in it to a neighboring planet.