The Phantasmagoric Lantern of Kulu Tu

The exact number of these items in existence is unknown, but it's theorized to be less than seven. Tavern-tales attribute their creation to the infamous Kulu the Illusionist, but these devices are actually the products of an unknown--though no less malign--genius.

These devices appear like any other mundane example of the primitive slide-projectors known as magic lanterns, the only difference being there is no way to change the slide being projected. When activated by placing a candle inside, the device projects strange and unsettling images of distorted, ghost-like figures and beasts. The projected image is larger and more distinct when a magical light-source is used, like a hand of glory, for example.

The image projected is no static scene, but a glimpse of the Negative Material Plane. The longer the device is left on, the thinner the "skin" between worlds becomes until the beings, the phantoms, from that plane are able to enter the Prime Material. When seen in the wan light of the projector the phantoms are ghostly pale, but when they pass out of the projector's cone of light, they become deep, featureless shadow. Their touch drains living things, indeed their very presence can can cause the wilting of nearby plants.

When the phantoms first emerge into the Prime Material, they may be given the name of a single individual. This individual the phantoms will seek out and drain with their life-stealing touch until he is dead. The phantoms are able to travel at great speed, perhaps by traversing between points of mundane shadow, so distance is no obstacle, but it does take time for them to locate the individual (by what ever eldritch means they utilize) and this process seems to take longer for more distant targets.

If they are prevented from getting to the individual, they will continue to try to do so until they are destroyed, or they dissipate. Phantoms drawn forth by light from a normal candle or other mundane light-source can only hold coherent form for twenty-four hours in the Prime Material, and every moment spent in bright sunlight doubles the rate of dissipation. Phantoms drawn forth by a magical light-source in the lantern will last for a week, or perhaps more, depending on the potency of the magic used, but are still just as susceptible to bright sunlight.

The wise user never allows more than three phantoms to emerge before extinguishing the lantern. More than that number, and the phantoms become likely to act more willfully, killing the summoner and anyone else they find rather than heeding a command. If the lantern is left lit and unattended, phantoms will continue to emerge until the light-source burns itself out, and wander out into the world with undirected malevolence.

The lantern can be used to study the beings of the Negative Material Plane, but only if care is taken to limit the length of its usage so that no phantoms emerge.

A Page of Sages

"It is not well for men who come seeking sage counsel to cast fleers before them. Nevertheless, I am today in a merry humor and will give ear to your problem."

- Ningauble of the Seven Eyes, "Adept's Gambit" by Fritz Leiber

Need a translation of some hieroglyphs from a long-dead culture? Or maybe an antidote for an exotic drug? Or perhaps you need a way to defeat an old and powerful dragon?  Well, here are a handful of scholars and experts of various stripes from the world were is found continent of Arn who might be able to lend a hand...

Mnaurmon Lloigor: Thystaran scholar and historian, perhaps the greatest of the age. Mnarmonos Liguros (as he's known in his native tongue) operates out the Museum of Thystara established by Emperor Ahzuran. Mnaurmon appears as the stereotypical sage--long white hair and beard with a slightly disheveled appearance, bespeaking a lack of concern with such things. He has something of a temper and doesn't suffer fools well, but reserves a great deal of charm for women. In fact, Mnaurmon has a well-developed appreciation for feminine beauty, and is almost always accompanied by a well-endowed famula who acts as his scribe. Mnaurmon is sought for his knowledge of history, particularly in regard to the rites of Ascension, and the ruins left by the mysterious Dungeon-Builders. Given his access to ancient Thystaran scrolls, he has a good chance of locating information even if he doesn't have it immediately at hand.

Athas the Strong: is a powerfully built Thystaran man who looks more like a wrestler or gladiator than a sage. Dressed only in simple clothes and carrying few possessions, Athas wanders the world striving to learn the secrets of unifying mind and body, and developing the twain to their highest potential. It is said that Athas has already advanced those arts to an amazing degree, and achieved superhuman abilities. Tales (no doubt exaggerated) say that he has the strength of a giant, and that his skin can turn a blade. Athas teaches unarmed martial arts, emphasizing the mind-expanding aspects of their practice rather than violence--though he is certainly unafraid to use violence if the need arises. Beyond teaching fighting techniques, Athas is sought out for his almost mystical ability to discern critical weaknesses in any opponent, even those only susceptible to magic, otherwise.

Gwynhumara Star-of-Dusk: a striking, dark-haired, tattooed, Kael woman, beginning to approach middle age. Known as a wise-woman, among the tribes in Northern Arn and beyond, for her knowledge of monstrous creatures and how they can be hunted and defeated. The abandoned nests of dragons, the spoor of bulette, even the scat of the dread tarrasque, are arcana she has mastered. Gwynhumara is unlikely to leave the lands of her tribe, but those who make the effort to find her may gain the benefit of her wisdom if they bring a gift and show the proper respect. The more audacious the hunt, the more likely she is to give aid.

Tuvo brek Amblesh: Magister of the Library-University of Tharkad-Keln. Amblesh is a gnome--which means, in this case one, of the halflings native to the great library. He as a magister of the third-circle and prelector superior on the botanical and alchemical sciences, but--as the glyphs of his curriculum vitae on his giethi-stick suggest--he's highly knowledgeable on many topics. Amblesh is what one might call an "action scholar"--in the sense that, despite he's advancing age, he insists on doing fieldwork and frequently gets into trouble--not in the sense of being particularly adept at handling trouble. Luckily, he has a bodyguard,the amazon Zura Kai, to protect him when this occurs.

Amaranthine: Though she appears youthful, as with all elves, her appearance is deceiving--she is older than Thystaran habitation in Arn, at least. The aethyr woman who has called herself "Amaranthine" for the past few centuries, typically dresses in simple, but elegant robes of shifting-image, elvish eidolon-silk. She rarely ventures abroad, not even for the conclaves which gather most of her kind.  She prefers to spend her time on her small island in the middle of a tranquil lake in the Chailéadhain Highlands of Arn. Amaranthine is something of an oracle, but she prefers to deal in knowledge of the past as trying to make since of the tangled skein of futurity gives her a headache. Her most common service is to recall for a supplicant something they have forgotten--even something they have been made to forget by magic, or have lost through reincarnation. She also has a great knowledge of music, history, and--surprising given her isolation--current gossip of the elven community, though she is seldom sought out for these purposes.

Comic Book Swordswomen of the Seventies

"Sword-swinging fantasy protagonist" has generally been a male gig. The pulps gave us a number of Sword & Sorcery heroes of renown, but Jirel of Joiry, CL Moore's "gal Conan," is the only female heroine of note from the era--Howard's Dark Agnes being a "historical" adventuress. It wasn't until the Sword & Sorcery revival of the late seventies-early eighties that a more women joined the fray.

Despite the smaller number of sword and sorcery heroes in comics, there's a much larger percentage of swordswomen. This can probably be attributed to the visual nature of comics--and the inherent appeal of scantily-clad warrior ladies to a predominantly male audience. Despite that, the beauteous women warriors of comics are, for the most part, more obscure than their male counterparts. It's time they got their due, starting with the trailblazers of the 1970s.

The first swordswoman of the seventies didn't have to deal with sorcery, but she did exist in a post-apocalyptic-fantasy setting, so I'm going to give her a nod. Lyra of the Femizons is from the pages of Savage Tales (vol. 1) #1 (1971) in a story called "Fury of the Femizons." This might be Stan Lee's update on William Moulton Marston's psychosexually underpinned Wonder Woman concept, or a "cautionary tale" of feminism gone wild (not a pay per view title, by the way) would lead to--or, an idea he scrawled on a napkin at a local deli to fill pages.

Lyra's 23rd Century is essentially reverse Gor, or The Planet of the Apes if you replace "apes" with "women." Lyra is the toughest gladiatrix around, defeating (and killing) the weak for the "vicious voluptuaries" of Queen Vega's court. That's until she meets hunky slave Mogon and agrees to help him with his evolutionary aims, for the sake of love. It all ends tragically, of course--well, mostly for Mogon. Lyra is forced to kill him to "prove" her loyalty to Vega. But she feels really bad about it and realizes, "when a man is but a slave--it is the women who live in bondage." Or something.

Our next swordsman is a little less obscure. Red Sonja, the so-called She-Devil with a Sword, debuted in 1973 in Conan the Barbarian #23. Sonja was Roy Thomas' Hyborian Age adaption of Sonya of Rogatino in his Conan-ified interpretation of Robert E. Howard's historical actioner "The Shadow of the Vulture." Thomas' Sonja got magical puissance with a blade from a goddess, along with geas that she would never know (in the Biblical sense) a man until he had defeated her in fair combat. After her Conan appearances, she got a famous chain-mail bikini from artist Esteban Maroto, and a lot of further appearances, including a succession of three self-titled series.

Marvel's loss of the Howard licenses couldn't sheathe Sonja's sword. She came back, and so did her chain-mail outfit so beloved by artists and fans. After a couple of one shots at other companies, Dynamite Entertainment picked up the character in 1999, and she's still going strong in an ongoing series and a succession of limiteds.

Just as Red Sonja was beginning to climb in popularity, DC unleashed their own swordswoman. Ravenhaired Starfire got her own title from the beginning, debuting in 1976. The creation of David Michilenie and Mike Vosburg, Starfire swung her sword for her world’s freedom from the alien Mygorg and Yorg for 8 issues. Like Lyra, she had a dead love for motivation, and like Red Sonja, she was always spurning the advances of other men.

The next two heroines chronologically have a connection to Red Sonja. The first, and the one to appear in the seventies, was Ghita of Alizarr. Frank Thorne took over the pencilling chores for Red Sonja in Marvel Feature #2 (Jan. 1976) and continued through the eleventh issue of her first self-titled series. Thorne spent most of the seventies getting photographed with attractive women--mostly by dressing up like a wizard and judging Red Sonja lookalike contests at conventions:

It's fair to say that ending his tour on Red Sonja didn't end his interest in buxom warrior women, so he created his own. In Warren's futuristic 1984 #7 (1978), the Red Sonja-reminiscent, but blonde-tressed, Ghita of Alizarr debuted. Freedom from Comics Code restrictions, freed Ghita from her clothes--frequently--and she proved not at all encumbered by any Sonja-esque restrictions on whom she might have sex with--or how often.

Ghita appears in three issues of 1984, and also in several collections where Thorne gets to play Thenef the Wizard in the cover photographs.

And here our heroines ride forth out of the seventies.  Next week, I'll take a look at swordswomen in the eighties and beyond.