When Rise the Stone Giants!

Some islands in the Tranquil Ocean are noted for their rough-hewn monolithic statues. Sometimes these are whole human figures with oversized heads, other times just the heads. Explorers have wondered at these statues and proposed various theories of their origins. Only a few have witness first hand the statues' most startling secret: They aren’t statues at all.

The stone giants of the Tranquil Ocean are living things. It is believed that they are the remnant of a once wider spread species (similar beings have been encountered in other parts of the world), but they now only exist in numbers on scattered islands. Though they appear to be constructs, post mortem examination suggests they are living beings (though composed of more earth elements than humans) with a rocky integument. It's is theorized that (like gargoyles) the body of a stone giant slowly petrifies further over their long lifespans. It appears that this process may lead to the giants spending longer and longer periods immobile until they become sessile--statues, for all practical purposes.

It’s unclear how stone giants reproduce--or if they reproduce at all. Specimens which appear different ages (based on size and their level of activity) have been observed, but there are no apparent sex differences, nor do their appear to be infants or children requiring the care of adults. Some have suggested the stone giants came (or were brought) here from some distant world, but the true is unknown.

Stone giants spend long periods of time in torpor. They can stay immobile so long that they can be partially buried by sediment. Whether this is strictly physiologic or partially purposeful is unknown. Mobile stone giants can speak in booming, sonorous voices, but the immobile aged become incapable. There is some evidence that stone giants possess telepathy, and the ancients of their kind may continue to communicate in this fashion after they are immobile. Human psychics often report uneasy or fearful feelings around them that have been theorized to result from the giants’ attempts at communication at frequency below that which can be interpreted by the human mind, but can be “felt."

Caution should be taken in dealing with stone giants. They are territorial, and may attack those they feel have trespassed. Natives of islands with stone giants placated them with blood sacrifices in previous times, though it’s unclear the giants took any particular notice.

[Treat these stone giants as stone golems or greater stone golems, except that they aren’t constructs. Oh, and just in case anybody missed it, I did an interview about the origins of Weird Adventures with Chris Kutalik over at the great Hill Cantons blog last week.]

Welcome to the MEGADUNGEON!

Looking for something for a little weekend family fun?  Why not a little delving? Sean Robson--half of the creative duo at Hopeful Monster Creations knows just the place.  He's developed a simple and fun update on the dungeoneering board game.  Megadungeon! delivers what you remember from that classic game of yore, but updates it with modular dungeon tiles and multiple levels.  And it's recession-priced at a mere $2.00.

I had the pleasure of checking this game out while in playtest, and I can say Sean has built a lot of detail into a fairly simple ruleset.  I'm looking forward to giving it a whirl with the nephews when I can pry the game-controllers from their hands.

Get it here.

Manuscript found in Airship Wreckage, 5877

The journal of geologist Farnsworth Lake, found in the wreckage of the airship Orvendel, is the only hint we have of the fate of the Altamont Arctic Expedition of 5876. Despite it’s undisputed authenticity, the veracity of its account is controversial.
Throughout much of the early voyage, Lake describes the view of the world below as obscured by thick mists. Temperature readings of the rising air are notably higher than typical for northern Borea. Proponents of the “Polar Homeland” theory have suggested this was due to the volcano-surrounded island which was home to the ancestors of the Natives of the New World. Skeptics accept the possibility of volcanoes, but dismiss the idea of lost tribes. No credible land or sea expedition has been able to approach the area thanks to malevolent ice elementals and death frost winds.

When they had flown north of the mists, Lake describes the mountain-ringed Polar Continent, quartered by sea channels. Here, the airship made landfall and managed to make contact with the obsidian-skinned dwarf people who inhabit the ancient, perhaps pre-human cities built into the sides of the mountains. Previous expeditions had painted the dwarves as savages (and possibly) cannibals, but Lake suggests the gifts of gems the expedition brought may have placated them. Lake records that the dwarves recipricated by giving Altamont's group a portion of the tusk of a giant walrus and ancient sculptures (perhaps idols) recovered from the cities. The fact that none of these artifacts were found in the wreckage is made much of by the manuscript's critics.

Soon after leaving the dwarves, Lake records that the radio operator sighted a party of “beautiful but strange-appearing” women. These women were described as having skin like porcelain and being utterly unaffected by the cold. Historic accounts report “amazons” on the Polar Continent, but no other expeditions have ever recorded a sighting.

Altamont had planned to turn back at the edge of the maelstrom at the center of the “ring” of the Polar Continent, but for some reason, the Orendel strayed closer to the imposing spire of the Black Peak. Lake records that they begin to drift in the wind, their propellers pulled off by the mountain's magnetism. Blue fire was seen dancing across the hull. Lake theorized this was the anti-magic field of the Peak interacting with the alchemical coatings.

It was in the second day adrift that Lake describes the moaning sound beginning. All the crew heard it, though it was louder for some than others. At first, they thought it might be a natural phenomena, but soon they discerned that it was more like a chorus of voices. Their sleep was disrupted by the sound. Lake confesses he has a mounting sense of dread as the Bleak Peak filled the horizon in front of them. He reports seening shapes moving beneath the at times almost mirror-smooth surface of the mountain.

At this point Lake’s account becomes more terse and (perhaps) more confused. He mentions two of the crewmen as being “gone” but he does not comment on the particulars of their absence. He records entries he dates earlier than previous entries, but that clearly occur after. He relates Grandon’s (the historian) obsession with “runes” on the Peak that Lake cannot see. Finally, he writes that Altamont plans to extend sails to try to catch the wind and and turn southward.

The Orendel's wreckage was recovered 10 months later from an ice flow. No bodies of the crew were found, but as all the supplies were left aboard, it seems unlikely they abandoned the craft purposely. No further evidence of their fate has ever been found.

The greatest barrier to the acceptance of the manuscript's account is reconciling it with the last radio communication received from the expedition.  Though the journal appears to be written in Lake's own hand, Altamont reported that Lake died during the encounter with the polar dwarves, nearly two weeks before the journal's last entry.

Warlord Wednesday: Revolution

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...

"Revolution"

Warlord #82 (June 1984)

Written by Cary Burkett; Penciled by Dan Jurgens; Inked by Dan Adkins.

Synopsis: Wrongly imprisoned as spies aboard an aircraft in the post-nuclear war USA of 2303, Morgan, Krystovar, Reno, and Shakira are transported to futuristic Washington, D.C., A city strangely unscarred by the devastation they’ve seen elsewhere.

As the officer that captured them turns them over to Secretary Dubrow, Morgan still has faith he can correct this misunderstanding. He hasn't noticed the “weaselly sadistic villain” look Dubrow has about him, and gets beat to unconsciousness and dragged to the slave camp for his trouble.

See that look on Dubrow?

Anyway, in the present of Skartaris, Tara is frustrated that she can’t go after her mate in another of the saucercraft. The leader of the New Atlantean contingent the Shamballans beat last issue let it be known that they had captured Tara’s warship. Warrior queen that she is, Tara can’t let something like that stand:

Back in the post-apocalypse, Morgan wakes up bruised in a slave pit. Krystovar is with him, but Shakira and Reno must be being held elsewhere. Another slave, a former engineer named Duncan, explains how a laser defense system protected Washington from the worst of the destruction. All non-military citizens had been conscripted into work crews for repairs. These had eventually evolved into slave gangs to keep the city running.

The slaves are hauled out of the pit to go to work in the hydroponic gardens that grow the city’s food. While at work, Morgan stares too long at the President with that slimy Dubrow beside him and gets zapped for his trouble.

Morgan has had all he can take. Back in the camp that night, he lays into Duncan about not fighting back. He gives the other slave a rousing, patriotic speech about freedom!

All of the slaves buy it. Not for the first time, Morgan is leading a rebellion.

Making use of Duncan’s engineering expertise. Morgan is able to block the flow of the hydroponic nutrient solution, causing pressure to build up in the big tanks until they blow. The slaves start seizing weapons from the surprised and injured guards. With Morgan’s heroics setting an example, the slaves secure the area and seal it off. Morgan plans to find his missing friends and keep fighting:

Things to Notice:

• Once again, Warlord gives a pessimistic view of future fashion. Dubrow's outfit looks like the seventies leisure-suit version of a Star Wars outfit.
• Duncan bears some resemblance to Machiste and plays a similar role in the story.

Where It Comes From:

This issue recalls Morgan's slave revolt at the gladiator school back in issue #2.  Like in the older stories, Morgan employs an American history quote in his speechifying.  This comes up in later series as well.

Mystery House

It's most often found at the end of a stretch of dirt road, be it along a lonely bayou in the South, perched precariously on a ridge in the Smaragdines, or rising like a mirage out of the hardpan in the West. Those that seek it seldom find it without magic, but the lost are somehow drawn to it. However visitors arrive, few can forget the sprawling mansion known as the Mystery House.

One story says that Hulysses Mulciber, heir to the Mulciber Repeating Arms Company, was troubled by nightmares of a gaunt gunslinger riding ahead of an army of the ghosts of those who had died due to his family’s rifles. A medium told him that he should build a house designed to confuse and confound the spirits to escape the wrath of the Spectre of the Gun (as she named the gunslinger) and his vengeful army. Another story (more prosaically) holds he began the house as an elaborate gift to his wife who was angry over his philandering. Whatever the reason for its construction, records agree that building originally began in the Smaragdines.

The house even as conceived twisted and turned back on itself--it was almost a maze--and that was before it gained a life of its own. Hulysses didn’t live to see it; he died of blood poisoning following an accidental shooting in a hunting accident. The weapon that did the deed was, of course, one of his own company’s. His wife Ansonia, fervent believer in the reality of the grim Spectre, completed the project and paid numerous thaumaturgists (real and otherwise) to lay all sorts of protections on the house. And construction continued.

Whatever protection conferred to the house didn’t extend to Ansonia. She died of thirst, having gone mad and gotten lost in her own house. It was shortly after her death that the house disappeared from its original lot.

There are some stories of treasures in the house--mostly the mundane riches of the Mulcibers--but most who seek it do so out of curiosity. Most who find it, though, didn’t mean to. Those that have been there and survived report doors to nowhere, hallways that turn back on themselves, and rooms that shift. The stale air is filled with the low, arthritic creaks and groans of the house twisting and rearranging itself, and the distant sound of heavy footsteps--and jangling spurs.

Chronicle

Chronicle (now in theaters) tells the story of three teenagers that encounter something crystalline (maybe something from the movie version of Krypton given its appearance) that seems burrowed underground. This strange event leads them to developing super-powers--specifically telekinesis at a fairly powerful level.  After some exuberant experimentation and sophmoric goofing around, Lord Acton's aphorism plays out in the way expected by anyone who's familiar with "Where No Man Has Gone Before", The Korvac Saga, or Zapped!.

Chronicle is a found footage sort of film, but this is better handled than a lot of other films of this type.  While the movie would probably have worked just as well without it, it adds a first person immediacy to the display of super-powers that someone makes it seem more real.  The flight sequences in particular seem to capture a bit of what it would feel like to fly moreso maybe any other superhero film.  Chronicle's final battle (informed, I think, by Akira and possibly Alan Moore's Marvelman) isn't quite as flashy as what you see in more typical superhero films, but it has a visceralness they often lack.

So how might Chronicle inform gaming?  Well, it seems well-suited as fodder for a "super-powers in the real world" sort of supers game, like Mutants & Masterminds: Paragons or the more grounded mechanics of GURPS Supers. That would be the obvious inspiration.

I think Chronicle might give some inspiration for fantasy gaming, too.  A lot of the wonder and horror that surely would be evoked by the sort of power wielded by rpg mages is blunted by its ubiquity (Harry Potter) or drown out by the surrounding worldbuilding (The Lord of the Rings films).  It might be worth thinking about this some to see if there's a way the "more than motal"-ness of magic-users can be portrayed.  Also, the power corrupting trope is perhaps under-utlized in fantasy.  Maybe there are so many evil wizards because corruption is an occupational hazard?  If so, how would that effect how adventuring parties view their resident mage?

One Night in Thrangbek

(Transcript of the Exotic Ports O’Call travelogue newsreel on the city of Thrangbek):

Bustling and cosmopolitan Thrangbek is the exotic jewel of the Gulf of Khayam. This city of approximately one million is a city of canals: It’s so crisscrossed by waterways that many of it’s citizens choose to live on houseboats. As the capital of the Kingdom of Khayam, home to majestic temples, and a center of trade, Thrangbek gets its share of visitors. Once a year, though, it plays host to an unusual convention. Players, gamblers, and spectators descend on the city in the hopes of winning the prize of enlightenment.

Despite all the magnificent temples dedicated to long-lobed, smiling Bo, the real religion of Thrangbek seems to be shatrang. To call shatrang “chess-like” is to only scratch the surface of this game whose rules are modified by a dizzying array of conditions including the position of the planets and stars, and whose pieces are infused with thaumaturgy. Shatrang players beginning training in childhood and those that can’t memorize its rules nor master the psychic control of it’s willful pieces often wind up beggars along the canals, their minds broken.

It has been theorized by Western thaumatologists that shatrang's complicated rules are actually the formulae of series of spells, disguised.  Shatrang player-adepts are said to absorb psychic energy from their opponents when they defeat them--games are popularly thought to take place not just on the Material Plane, but the Astral, as well.  This accumulation of energy allows players to advance to the next level. Their ultimate goal is the achieve the highest rank possible--a title translated as “Grand Master of Flowers.”

The final match for the ultimate title occurs away from the public. At the endgame, a portal is said to open to a higher plane, and the winner steps through to greet the other Immortals of shatrang and gain the prize of heavenly knowledge and vistas beyond the mortal realm.

As far as Exotic Ports O'Call can determine, no Grand Master has ever returned to let anyone else in on any of those secrets of the universe.

Shadow of the Beast

Somewhere in the Steel League, 5889:

“So your town is cursed, you say?”

“A demon or god makes its burrow beneath our town. It rises once a year, and everywhere it’s shadow falls turns as cold as the bitterest winter. The Natives use to placate it, somehow.  We've been less successful."

“Have you tried to kill it before?”

“Several times--and failed. Other hired adventurers. The old meat locker was made into a makeshift tomb if you’ve like to see--”

“That won’t be necessary. Two questions, Mister Mayor: Do you have enough in the town treasury to cover our fee--and do you have any dynamite hereabouts?

Warlord Wednesday: Thief's Magic

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...

"Thief's Magic"

Warlord #81 (May 1984)

Written by Cary Burkett; Penciled by Dan Jurgens; Inked by Dan Adkins.

Synopsis: In a shaded spot in Skartaris, two travellers sleep around a cook fire. Young Tinder creeps up to steal from an open sack. But the travellers are not as unaware as they seem:

The robed clerics are actually Jennifer Morgan and faithful Faaldren. Jennifer demands Tinder tell her his story—cautioning that she’ll know if he’s lying. Tinder tells how, after leaving Shamballah, he’d worked with a merchant caravan (and supplemented his pay with a little pickpocketing) until the New Atlantean raiders attacked. Everyone else had been killed or captured, but Tinder escaped.

Jennifer senses something more about the boy—a kinship—but doesn’t wish to use her magic to pry further just now. And so, Jennifer misses the chance to discover that Tinder is actually her half-brother, Joshua.

Tinder also tells them that Shamballah has fallen. Jennifer casts a spell to find out what happened to her father.

She can’t locate him—which means he’s either vanished from the earth or dead. The former is actually correct; Morgan is imprisoned in the future and (coincidentally) having a nightmare about the day Deimos forced him to kill his own son. It was a trick, of course, and Joshua was raised in anonymity, unaware of his true identity.

Despite the dire news, Jennifer wants to go to Shamballah to pick up her father’s trail. As they’re breaking camp, they get some unwanted visitors…

Comely cow? So, anyway, Jennifer starts to sling a spell, but it’s cut short when she takes a crossbow bolt in the shoulder. Faaldren jumps in with a sword stab through the eye of a lizard mount and Jennifer casts a spell sending illusionary warriors running to his aid. Still, her power's weakening and the illusions don’t fool the New Atlanteans long. Jennifer enlists Tinder’s help casting a spell with one of her magic jewels. She has Tinder concentrate on the most fearsome thing he can thing of for fodder for a renewed illusion spell. Tinder recalls something from a story a man chained in a Shamballan dungeon told him; a man who was actually Travis Morgan, his real father…

He conjures what Jennifer recognizes as a demonic train! She wonders where a Skartarian boy might have found out about locomotives. She realizes there’s more to Tinder than there appears. And so, when the boy asks if Jennifer will teach him some magic, Jennifer agrees to do so and to let him accompany them to Shamballah.

Things to Notice:

• Tinder (Joshua) is back. He was last seen in issue #61.
• The title character, however, barely appears--and he's asleep in his only non-flashback panel.

Where It Comes From:

This issue spends a far amount of time recapping and summarizing Tinder's origin, related piecemeal in previous issues.  The bull-headed beastman recalls Travis Morgan's own transformation by the Alces Shirasi back in issue #18.

Perusing Pathfinder's Bestiary 3

Welcome to post 600.

I picked up the pdf of Pathfinder Bestiary 3 last week.  I had heard it had some Lovecraftian creatures in it, and I was curious, but in general, I like mining monster manuals for ideas.  Paizo's previous entries in the Bestiary series have been pretty good in this regard.

First off, there are a lot of mythological creatures repurposed in tried and true rpg fashion.  Quite a few of these are of Asian derivation making this suitable for a "Oriental Adventures" sort of game.  There are also creatures from the myths of Native Americans, Inuit, and Pacific Islanders as well.  The Fiend Folio and Filipino folklore veteran, the Berbalang, makes an appearance.

There are a lot of other Fiend Folio also-rans.  The dire corby, adherer and the flumph get entries, for reasons beyond my understanding.  There are some Monster Manual II refugees too.

There are the obligatory expansions to giants, dragons, demons and devils.  As is typical, the ranks of evil classes of creatures get expanded with the divs (evil genies) and asuras (philosophic devil sorts), and our old friends the demodands (who all look much more militant and badass in their illustration than the MM2 originals).

One of the things I like is the cryptid and more modern folklore entries.  There's the hodak and globster from North America and the kongamato, lukwata and popobala (which was changed for some reason from popobawa) from Africa.

The aforementioned Lovecraftian critters include the moon-beast, voonith, and Yithians.  There are other literary borrowings including the bandersnatch and the jubjub bird from Lewis Carroll and monsters likely inspired by other media: the hungry fog and the sargassum fiend.

There are a lot of original monsters, of course.  Some of these (like the bogeyman and the pale stranger) are interesting, but seem better suited to a non-Medieval game.  Then there's the cold rider, who's sort of a frosty Nazgul astride a demonic reindeer, and the deathweb--the husk of a giant spider animated by thousands of little spiders!   Both of these guys would make cool one shots, at least.

Overall, I think it's a decent selection of monsters.  More time is spent on more of particular, familiar clades of creatures than I would like (more giants, demons, devils, and variant dragons and dragon-like creatures), but I really like Paizo keeping alive the tendency to borrow entries from literature and modern folklore in addition to mythology.

The Way of the Gun

“...a gun isn’t a thing of miracles. It’s a mechanical contraption that is capable of just so much and no more.”
- “One Hour” Dashiell Hammett

In the world of the City, it was opined over a century ago that “Forces beyond Man’s kin make the wizard, but with his own hand Man makes the gun, and so makes himself the Wizard’s equal.” Firearms represent the triumph of scientific arts like alchemy over the arcane; A triumph which has shaped the modern world.

The oldest firearms utilized the chemical explosive now called black powder. Given these older weapons were made by individual smiths rather than factories, they are more likely to bear enchantments. There are still matchlock and flintlock weapons in use by adventurers for this reason. The Dwergen-made wonderbuss is an example of such a weapon.

Historical sources attest to another (rarer) explosive called red powder, which is now lost. This rust-colored explosive was a closely guarded secret of a cabal of alchemists. (This group is supposed to have been called the Brethren of Steropes and resided in a mobile flying monastery always hidden behind a thunderhead--or so legends say). The compound was activated by exposure to light. It was used in guns of a wheellock mechanism where the striking of two crystals caused a small flash of light. It was also used in ceramic grenades and even in “time delayed” explosives that were placed at night, to go off with the coming dawn.

The modern form of gunpowder is a so-called “smokeless propellant” as it produces negligible smoke compared to the older compounds. It’s made from the alchemical fixation of “smokeless fire,” the same para-elemental substance (airy fire) of which jinn are composed. Modern, mass-produced guns are seldom enchanted--not purposefully, at least--but being close to death and strife sometimes leaves an arcane imprint. Adventurers and special government agents do sometimes use custom ammunition of a magical material or mundane bullets enchanted for a specific effect.

The City has stricter gun control laws many localities in the Union--at least nominally. Ownership or carry of any firearm small enough to conceal requires a license. These are issued by the police department (and usually require a bribe or a friendly contact to acquire, in addition to the licensing fee). Loaded long arms are illegal to carry (and even carrying unloaded ones will invite police involvement unless one can convince them one is on the way to a shooting range or to a hunt), but their ownership is not restricted.

In the Union overall, cities and towns closer to the wilderness or to uncleared caves or ruins have fewer restrictions than safer areas.

Any Requests?

Maybe it's because I'm in spitting distance of 600 posts and people have had time to digested Weird Adventures (and if you haven't, check out Booberry's review), or maybe it's just because it's Friday and I'm lazy, but I'm inclined to take suggestions for future posts.  So if you've got questions (burning or otherwise) you want answered about the City or the Strange New World, or some hint from a precious post you want me to expand upon, now's your chance to ask.  I won't necessarily do a post on every suggestion, but any I get will form my list for consideration when it's time to revisit the City. 

Here's some things I've thought about--but don't feel bound to this list.  It might be worth revisiting the (mis)adventures of Cap'n Clanton in the South Tranquil Sea.  There's also the Old World east of Staark as yet unchronicled.  There's always room for more famous adventurers of yesteryear. 

So that's what I've got. Anything from the audience?

Where's Your Head?

One of the strangest artifacts of the Ancients is the so-called Spectral-Head Harness. The device is a heavy, wide-shouldered pectoral of some reinforced leather-like material attached to a thick, rune-inscribed collar of black ceramic. The device is strapped to a wearer by a harness that seems composed of what seem like industrial hoses that follow lines of the wearer's ribcage. Once the device is strapped into place, it activates.

Jarus Shanck, adventurer and assassin, who gave his name to the City barony of Shancks, is the only recorded bearer of the artifact. What we know of its operation comes from accounts by Shanck’s associates. When Shanck was secured in the device, it began to emit a low hum. The sound lasted a few minutes. During this time, the flesh and hair on Shanck’s skull seemed to sublimate as a cloud of roiling mist formed around his head. Soon, only his skull was left, seemingly floating in the mist. Given that Shanck had never been considered a handsome man (He was extensively scarred, it was said, from too many narrow victories as a boy fighting giant rats in the gaming pits), this wasn’t an especially great loss. Interestingly though, the flesh of his skull was not actually gone. Close observation suggested it had merely been transformed--become hazy and indistinct--and mostly hidden by the mists it seemed to diffuse into.

Jarus Shanck always explained that his head had gone "elsewhere." Whatever that meant, the device seemed to grant the powers of True Seeing, Arcane Sight, and at least at sometimes, Precognition. Some claim it was futuresight that led Shanck to kill the sea creature, Thraug--but no one knows for certain. Shanck also ceased to need sleep, though his body still needed rest through inactivity. Attacks against his head would pass harmlessly through the mist and suffocation or drowning had no effect. It has been theorized that attacks that could effect the astral could have harmed his head, but this remains unproven.

Besides the obvious cosmetic effects, the harness had other disadvantages. The longer Shanck’s head spent wherever it went, the more he became distracted from things on the material plane. Increasingly concerned about this problem, Shanck finally sought to have the harness removed--and discovered another downside.

After Shanck’s death, the harness is said to have unlatched on its own. None of his lieutenants claimed it, and it disappeared from history. If the rumors about Shanck’s hidden treasure trove behind the cliffs along the Eldritch are true, it maybe that that is where the harness can be found--awaiting another head.

Warlord Wednesday: Future Trek

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...

"Future Trek"

Warlord #80 (April 1984)

Written by Cary Burkett; Penciled by Dan Jurgens; Inked by Dan Adkins

Synopsis: At the end of last issue, a wolf-headed, bare (and hairy) chested New Atlantean captain and his troops had the drop on Tara and her Shamballan soldiers in the weapons cache cave. Before Captain Wolf-head can seize the weapons for the glory of New Atlantis, a stranger in black appears and starts shooting things with a ray gun.

That gives Tara and Scarhart the opening they need:

They make short work of the New Atlanteans. Before they can thank their mysterious benefactor, he’s disappeared.

Somewhere in the future, Morgan, Shakira, and Krystovar are chowing down on some fine nutria-stew and chatting with Dr. Reno Franklin. He thinks he’ll probably be able to return them to their own time once they get the kinks worked out of the saucer craft. Right now, they only go forward in time.

Our heroes will have to wait. Weeks pass. Krystovar studies English, Morgan explores the futuristic complex, and Shakira gets bored and does something rash.

In cat form, she sneaks up of the complex via an air duct (despite Morgan’s warning about the temporal incongruity between inside and outside). Following some interesting smells, she comes upon a fine denizen of the future:

It looks like cat is considered fine eating in this time because future primitive and his gang chase Shakira, forcing her to hide in a ruined city.

Later, back at the complex, Shakira angrily interrupts Morgan and Reno to ask why Morgan didn’t come looking for her when she’s been gone for days. It’s the time difference again; For those inside the base, she’s only been gone for a short while.

Intrigued by Shakira’s story, Reno suggests they check out the ruined city. Morgan concludes that the destruction could only have been caused by a nuclear attack. Reno finds a calendar showing the date is later than he thought: The devastation occurred sometime after October 1 2303! Realizing his life has become a Twilight Zone episode, Reno freaks out a bit. Morgan tells him to man up. They need to organize a scouting expedition to find out just how much devastation there is.

The scientists have got a small plane that Morgan can fly. They decide to fly out over Salt Lake City (the closest metropolitan area) and see what they can see. Morgan tells Reno he’s been to the future before, but this one is different. Reno explains that, theoretically, there are an infinite number of alternate future timelines.

Salt Lake City is bombed out. Morgan prepares to fly in low to look for survivors, but:

Futuristic soldiers bring them aboard with a sort of force beam. Morgan tries to explain who they are to the captain of the group. Unsurprisingly, he’s skeptical of Morgan’s story of secret time travel projects. They’re arrested as spies…

Things to Notice:

• The Shamballan soldier extras with Tara and Scarhart seem to appear and disappear in different panels.
• There's little continuity between the dress of the Shamballans and the New Atlanteans here and last issue.
• Morgan's military training doesn't lead him to offer any other suggestion to the future Air Force captain than "call the President" to confirm his tale of a secret government project.

Where It Comes From:

This issue references Morgan and Shakira's previous jaunt to the future Australia in Grell's last storyline (issues #69-71).

How Many Are Out There?

So it looks like the orders of Weird Adventures are getting out there.  Over in the Land of Nod, Matt had some kind words.  It's got Bill the Dungeonmaster fired up over at The Crown and the Ring, and Jack, spinner of Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque, has got a copy in his hands.

Anybody else got theirs yet and care to let me know?  I think the lord of Gothridge Manor is still waiting...

In the Belly of the Beast

Leviathans are perhaps the largest and most mysterious denizens of the ocean depths. These gigantic creatures dwarf both whales and reptilian sea serpents. Their name in the gurgling language of the sea devils translates roughly as “monster-thing stronger than even the gods.” Despite their great size, the creatures are seldom seen, and carcasses are rarer still.

Some have suggested that the size of leviathans is impossible and therefore indicative of a magical nature. It has been theorized that the creatures' rarity is a by-product of the fact that they actually swim through the etheric substructure of reality, only passing through the physical world’s oceans incidentally.

The discovery of a leviathan carcass always instigates a mini-”gold rush.” The flesh and bone of the beast are of interest to alchemists (synthetic insulating blubber was an outgrowth of study of the leviathan) and thaumaturgists who use various leviathan parts for spell materials. Leviathan ambergris can be used to make perfumes and colognes easily infused with charm or suggestion properties. It’s also a psychoactive and can be smoked to produce a euphoric effect and intense sexual desire that in some individuals manifests a a mania lasting 10 x 1d4 minutes.

Less scientifically minded individuals hope to salvage treasure swallowed by the leviathan in its journeys. Whole ships laden with cargo are sometimes found (this is facilitated by the fact that internally leviathans are cavern-like, evidencing a strange paucity of organs). The loot-minded must be wary, however. Strange miasmas are sometimes produced inside a dead leviathan that can cause death or mutagenic effects on the unprotected.

Get Your Motor Running

I watched the science fiction anime Redline from Madhouse Studios last night,and it got me thinking about the “crazy road race” genre. You know, things like Cannonball Run (1981), It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), and the Hanna-Barbera cartoon, Wacky Races. I think this sort of race set-up is rife with gaming potential.

The genre goes beyond mundane (well, not that cars with buzzsaw wheels are mundane to begin with) auto-racing. Redline puts the race in a sci-fi context as does Yogi’s Space Race (remember that one?). Thundarr gets into the game with the “Challenge of the Wizards” episode. Almost all the animated version of this trope have vehicles tricked out with weapons, and some live action one’s do, too--see the rally sequence of the criminall underrated live-action Speed Racer with it’s morning-star armed viking racers.

Obviously, Car Wars could do this sort of think. The ever prolific Matt Stater's Mutant Truckers would work, too. Fantasy systems aren’t out of the question, though (see Thundarr). And of course, you can do this sort of thing pre-automobile. A race to become leader of a kingdom or some such (similar to the tournaments for leadership in Mystara's Ierendi or the titular Empire of the Petal Throne) could use various sorts of fantastic mounts or maybe flying ships--or flying carpets. However you choose, just get those those charcter's on the road to adventure!

Railroading All Gamers Can Enjoy

Hell on Wheels on AMC tells the story of a mobile camp accompanying the construction of the first intercontinental railroad. It has the usual assortment of characters and professions one would expect in any boomtown, plus individuals looking to actively escape civilization for reasons of there own.

The series (which just completed its first season) would obviously be good inspiration for a Western or Steampunk game, but I think it has something to offer fantasy gaming, as well. Non-traditional fantasy would be the most obvious (Mieville has a railroad being built in Iron Council and Eberron has got trains) but a good old fashion wilderness hexcrawl might be informed by the series, too.

All that’s really needed is a reason for a raucous camp of adventurers and hangers-on to be travelling through the wilderness. Perhaps they're doing something as mundane as cutting a new road (like Daniel Boone and his men in Cherie Priest’s Those Who Went Remain There Still) or maybe they’re doing something more exotic, like riding a giant monster so they can mine stuff from its body. Whatever. They just need to be travelling across the wilderness and dragging a bit of civilization with them.

One of Hell on Wheels’s promo posters proclaims: “Blood will be spilled. Lives will be lost. Men will be ruined.” Sounds like a call to adventure to me.

The Walls of Graveston Prison

“Abandon All Hope” reads the blood red graffiti some wag has managed to scrawl on the stone cliff beside the docks. It may well be the first thing most prisoners see when emerging from the department of correction’s ferry at Graveston, the Union’s most notorious maximum security prison.

Graveston looks like a Medieval fortress and seems to rise from a rocky isle in San Tiburon Bay as if it grew from it. Popular stories suggest that sea devils once held pagan rituals on the island before the Natives were finally able to drive the humanoids. Current thaumatological theory considers this unlikely, because of the island's unusual properties: The stone which forms it generates an anti-magic zone that leeches the power from any spell.

This property made the island an ideal spot for a prison to hold thaumaturgists. Though modern Graveston holds dangerous men of all sorts, its lowest levels hold criminal mages and magical entities. Hell Syndicate hitman Charley Rictus and the murderous ventriloquist’s dummy Otto were held here at one time alongside a host of thaumaturgic wrongdoers. All of them are rendered powerless (supposedly) by the island’s stone.

There is some evidence that the current theories island's anti-magic nature are incomplete. Belief has power here, which is why the warden and guards work hard to break the spirits of the inmates. No god or spirit-form can be more powerful than their authority within Graveston’s stone walls. Some have suggested this has had the effect of allowing seepage of the Black Prison into the Material plane--which may have long term consequences.

Also, magically enhanced shivs and shanks are sometimes found among the population. Beyond the power of petty spirits and eikones yet unbroken by the screws’ clubs, life itself carries a thaumaturgic charge. And when that life is wasted in spilled blood, the blood does, too. Blood sacrifices (of their own, or better yet, others) grant prisoners power, but some of this blood power is always lost to the floor, to the walls. What might the stones do with all that power, one might wonder?

Warlord Wednesday: Paradox

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...

"Paradox"

Warlord #79 (March 1984)

Written by Cary Burkett; Penciled by Pat Broderick; Inked by Rick Maygar.

Synopsis: Morgan, Krystovar, and Shakira find themselves travelling through some strange space in the Atlantean saucer. A beam of energy seems to grab them and pull them back into the earthly realm, where they find the beam emanating from an array operated by two men.

The saucer comes in for a landing. The three are surprised that men seem to know them, but seem confused as to how they wound up in the craft. One of the men, Reno, even seems aware of Shakira’s shape-changing ability. Before Morgan can ask many questions, our heroes get an even bigger surprise:

Other-Morgan makes some cryptic comments about everything "starting to make sense." Reno doubles over in some sort of spasm he blames on “chronal radiation.” A weird blue cloud begins to grow out from around him. It blots out the world and our protagonists find themselves falling through a churning formlessness.

When the three find themselves again on solid ground, they’re on board a ship: the U.S.S. Eldridge! Morgan’s heard of it, and relates the legend/conspiracy theory about its involvement in secret invisibility experiments during World War II. But as the story goes, something went wrong. As if to reinforce this point a crazed crewman runs by them and phases right through a gun turret.

They see another group of crewmen trying to keep a man they recognize as Reno from floating off into the void. Morgan confronts him, but Reno doesn’t know him. The other crew think Morgan and his friends are aliens, but they’re distracted when the strange fog begins to recede. The experiment is coming to an end.

Unfortunately for our heroes, they fall out of time again and into the void.

When they’re again able to stand, they again see Reno. This time he knows them as the “beings” he encountered on the Eldridge in 1943. He gives them chronal-dampener belts to keep them from getting pulled into the timestream again. The weird fog evaporates and they find themselves in a laboratory populated by busy technicians.

Dr. Reno Franklin tells our heroes that their doing experiments similar to the one on the Eldridge. The current year (as near as he can determine) is 2068!
Reno was the only one of the Eldridge’s crew, exposed to chronal radiation, that didn’t go insane (or at least that’s his story). Somehow, the Eldridge teleported from Philadelphia to Virginia and back. The government wanted to build craft (saucer-like, naturally) that could replicate that. They sent Reno and others to a secret base in the Rockies to work on it.

The chronal radiation made time begin to run differently on the inside of the base than on the outside. Only a few years passed for the researchers, but over a century on the outside. Despite that, they kept working, and now they’re almost done with the craft.

In the “present” of Skartaris, Tara has found the right cartridge to open one of those saucers in the cave. She plans to go after Morgan. Those plans are interrupted by the arrival of a group of New Atlantean soldiers lead by a wolf-headed beastman—who plans to seize the weapons cache himself!

Things to Notice:

• Future-Shakira is wearing a dress!  And it's pink!
• Chronal-Dampner?  Presumably they mean "damper" or "dampener."
• Reno Franklin has the same haircut and fashion from 1943 to 2068.

Where It Comes From:

This issue uses as its basis the conspiracy theory/hoax known as the "Philadelphia Experiment."  The Eldridge was a real U.S. Navy destroyer, but the facts of its service don't match the story.  A couple of proportedly true accounts of the Philadelphia Experiment were published in the late seventies, so one of these may be where Burkett encountered it.

This storyline in Warlord appears to have done it's own inspiring. The Asylum direct to video science fiction film 100 Million BC has a scientist who once worked on the Philadelphia Experiment named Frank Reno.

Maps of Places to Escape From

Or maybe, to break into.  You and your players can decide.

First, a small island named for the pelicans that (presumably) once nested there.  Of course, Alcatraz is more famous for the Federal prison that was located there:

Here's a floorplan of the prison itself:

Next, here's the truly sprawling High Royds Hospital in Menston, England, part of the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum.

In the Classifieds

Here are some classified ads (which appear in the hardcopy versions of Weird Adventures.  Secure your copy today!) that might lead to adventures weird or otherwise:

SALESMEN WANTED

BIG MONEY AND FAST SALES. Minor magics and household charms are a boom industry. Low prices. High profits. Write for particulars and free samples. KING TALISMAN CO., Dept. 55, 666 Torio Ave., Lake City.

HELP & INTSRUCTION

APPRENTICE ADVENTURERS Get paid a competitive wage in treasure. Experience unnecessary. All you need is a stout heart and a strong back. FLEISCHSCHILD’S INSTITUTE St. Gorgan, Lichmond.

RANGER POSITIONS pay $125-$200 month; nice cabin. Hunt. Trap. Patrol. Get free list of Union Protected Forests immediately. RALSON INST., Dept. A-14, Mountain City, West.

HELP WANTED – FEMALE

ASSISTANT NEEDED Attractive young woman (18-28 yrs.), preferably blonde. $175 a month, plus housing. Discretion and comfort around large animals a must. Inquire at 616 Grimalkin St., Empire Island. Come alone.

Don't Ask! Just Buy It!

Or so says Aos (channeling Jack Kirby) in his review of the Weird Adventures pdf.  Well, the same advice applies, I'm sure, to the now available hardcover and softcover versions. 

Head over to RPGNow (or Drivethrurpg, whichever) and order your copy today.  It will change your life! In a fairly minor way, most likely--but I'm sure it will be positive.

Don't (just) take my word for it.  Read this review at Fame & Fortune and this one from the Armchair Gamer.

Whiskey not included.

(Oh, and as I mentioned yesterday.  If you bought the pdf prior to the release of the hardcopy, and you now want a hardcopy, contact me for your discount. Some restrictions apply.  Void in the Outer Planes.)

Say the Secret Word and Win a Prize

If you purchased the Weird Adventures pdf at any point up until 9:00pm (East Coast U.S.) today (January 12), contact me if you want a $10.00 discount on either the hardcover or softcover (or both, if you're a completist!).

Email me at the address in my profile with your purchase date and RPGNow/Drivethrurpg customer number and I'll send one or both discount codes (specify your choice).