Medieval or Other?

While D&D is a mishmash of various (and often disparate) elements, as written its base is the European Middle Ages. This is true of most fantasy games that have could after it.

Of course, that’s not the only way to go. Supplements have been published that pushed the game back into the ancient world (Imperial Rome, the time of the Old Testament, etc.) and forward into Renaissance and the world of gunpowder. None of these options require too much chance to the basics of the game.

I don’t know if anyone else has this problem, but I have a hard time choosing at times. Solomon Kane and the world of Warhammer Fantasy have their appeal. So does the ancient Rome of Tierney’s Simon of Gitta, or the Hellenistic era of Leiber’s "Adept’s Gambit." And in between the two Robin Hood and many of the historical actioners of Robert E. Howard have an attraction all their own.

I know most fantasy settings are a bit of a anachronistic hodge-podge: one can put together elements from several different time periods. Howard’s Hyborian Age allows Conan to fight Picts (American Indians) on the frontier and a wizard from Stygia (ancient Egypt). Still, Conan’s world seems mostly Medieval; Howard had to make a choice of sorts and so does every GM making up a setting.
Like I say, sometimes that’s tough, at least for me.  Choosing one door closes off others.  Anybody else have this difficult? Or do you have a favorite era that you seldom stray from?

One WaRPed Character

Last night, part of the gaming crew met in virtual for a character creation session for our new Weird Adventures game using the WaRP system.  Tim and Chris recreated their previous Lorefinder characters using the new rules set.  As I expected, the only step even the slightest bit difficult was just getting into the mindset of the system--the actually creation part was very easy.  Here's Chris's Don Diabolico--Gentleman Thief:

Traits:
Gentleman Thief (dapper clothes, shifty eyes) - 4
Good shot with a Pistol (steady grip) - 3
Skilled Driver (calm behind the wheel) - 3

Flaw:
Greedy (covetous gaze)

Motivation: 
Get rich or die trying

Secret:
In debt to the Hell Syndicate

Equipment: Natty attire, swordcane, concealable pistol, gloves.

Warlord Wednesday: Nightmare Prelude

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...

"Nightmare Prelude!"

Warlord #96 (August 1985)

Written by Cary Burkett; Art by Rick Stasi; Inks by Bill Collins.

Synopsis: In the Shamballan camp at the Great Fire Mountain, Jennifer casts a spell to bring Machiste and Mariah from the ancient Age of Wizard-Kings to the present. Those two disappear from that era mid-chess game leaving Mungo Ironhand perplexed.

Morgan explains to his newly arrived friends that a war is coming and he needs their help.  The three wander off, giving Jennifer the opportunity to cast another spell to find the now missing Tinder.  Unfortunately, Mungo’s trying to cast a reversal spell to get Mariah and Machiste back.  The two spells get crossed up and Tinder winds up in the past.

Elsewhere, Tara shares a per usual tense exchange with her old friend (and one time lover) Graemore the minstrel.  After his talk with Tara, Graemore goes off to strum his lute alone, and accidentally winds up eavesdropping on Morgan revealing his plans for a sneak attack:

Mariah discovers Graemore and takes him for a spy.

Morgan intervenes and introduces him properly. Mariah was right in suspecting a spy in their midst, though:  A raven takes flight from a branch overhead.

Meanwhile in the capital of New Atlantis, a Vashek assassin has an audience with the Wizard-King,  who is mostly hidden from our view. The failure to kill the Warlord requires a new strategy. The Wizard-King will send a nightmare to cause him to despair and weaken spiritually and mentally. Then the assassin’s will be able to kill him.  A blood red cloud flows from the palace and into the sky, seeking its prey.

In the Bloodrock Mountains, Lord Sabertooth gets a visit from the witch, Saaba.  Transforming from her raven form, she tells him about Morgan’s plans.  Sabertooth is angry at being duped into combing the mountains looking for a nonexistent enemy camp, and hungry for revenge.  Saaba, desiring above all to see Morgan defeated, sweeps up Sabertooth in a whirlwind to transport him to Shamballah ,so he can prepare a surprise for the Warlord and friends.

That night, the Wizard-King’s nightmare does its work. Morgan dreams of slaying Vashek assassins, only to have them revealed to be his friends and family beneath their masks. The sexy personification of death he met before appears and reminds him that he serves her. Morgan wakes up in a sweat and walks out in the night to sit alone. He wonders if he will lead people to their death because he is cursed to destroy everything he holds dear.

The next morning, the plan begins.  Morgan, Trogero , Scarhart and a small force of soldiers enter the caves leading to the ancient complex beneath Shamballah. When they reach the complex, Trogero is felled by a crossbow bolt!

Lord Sabertooth and a group of New Atlantean soldiers wait in ambush!

Things to Notice:

• All the women look like bodybuilders in Stasi's art.
• The Danko riders are called unicorn riders here, despite their mounts obviously having three horns.
• The mysterious Wizard-King of New Atlantis is mentioned for the first time.
• Krystovar comments that in the coming battle he might unknowingly kill his brother who has been turned into a beast-man by the New Atlanteans.  Foreshadowing, perhaps?

Where It Comes From:
The underground passage and the computer complex where the ambush occurs first appeared in issue #15.

The female personification of death first appeared in issue #14. Morgan found out her name is "Azrael" and entered her realm to save Shakira in issue #46.  See the commentary on those issues for more.

Adventuring in Style

Adventurers call it “crawling” for a reason: most of the underground places they go into seeking treasure can be a bit cramped.  Outside of the City though, in more remote places, the wilderness and the subterranean structures under it may allow adventurers other means of travel than their own two feet.

The modified automobile above was built by Hamish Littlejon for himself and his companions. It’s structure was reinforced by the application of magical sigils--but duration of the enhanced protection that these provided was never fully field tested. The engine was likewise thaumaturgically enhanced and was twice as efficient as a mundane automobile's.

Littlejon and his entire party disappeared on a trip to the Spine of the Dragon Mountains in Asciana.  The vehicle was undamaged and still full of provisions when it was found.  Milo Munsen, owner of the “Life of Fantastic Danger” Museum, purchased it and made arrangements to have it shipped to the City, but it never arrived.  All attempts to locate the vehicle since have failed.

Audience with A Dragon

I'm having intermittent internet connectivity problems, but it's working at the moment.  Long enough for me to post this illustration of an adventuring group in the eldritch future of the Planet of the Elves of an adventuring party in consultation with a smartly dressed dragon.

The art is by Bobby Timony who was the artist on the whimiscal, 1920s occult detective comic strip Night Owls for Zuda.

Primordial Ooze

Though the ideas advanced by Hamley are still denounced from pulpits, no scientist doubts the truth  of his transmutation theory.  This is in part due to the rediscovery of that wonder of phylogeny, the waggishly named Demiurge Island.

This island of the near antarctic South Tranquil Sea first entered history in the log of the Trysteran explorer, Caproni. Caproni noted the ring of high cliffs around the large isle but was unable to find a way to the island's interior.  The island was subsequently lost--and remains strangely hard to find to this day.  Still, later explorers have visited it and done what Caproni could not.

The unusual nature of the island is immediately apparent.  It’s home to a fantastically diverse array of wildlife, seemingly from all areas of history from primordial times to the advent of man.  While prehistoric survivors are sometimes found in remote places, seldom is the variety of species as great or the populations so small. This hints at the most startling of the island’s mysteries.

At the center of its great inland lake or lagoon, is a partially collapsed caldera.   On one side there’s a cavern which houses the strangest survivor of the dawn of life ever found. A gelatinous pool or mass resides in that cave.  This rippling and quivering gray protoplasmic thing disgorges half-formed, primitive organisms from its surface--both microscopic and macroscopic. These primordial creatures emerge from the slime and fall into the waters nearby and are swept out into the lake.  There they continue to develop and emerge from the water as the immature forms of any animal.  Few if any of the lifeforms on the island are products of the usual reproductive processes: they all emerge from the primordial ooze.

It is though that this mass of protoplasm might represent a remnant mass of what was once perhaps a fecund sea--and the origin of all life on Earth.  Scientists have at times tried to bring back some of this mass for study: to delve into the origins of life and to seek cures for human disease.  The conspiratorially-minded whisper that they have--and some of these samples have escaped (or worse, have been intentionally released) to spawn oozes, slimes, and malformed monsters.

Warlord Wednesday: Sins of the Father...(Part 3)

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...

"Sins of the Father...Fate of the Son" (part 3)

Warlord Annual #4 (1985)

Written by Cary Burkett; Penciled by Pat Broderick; Inked by Bob Smith.

Synopsis: In his tower, the Evil One scries the approach of Travis and Jennifer Morgan. He recognizes the Hellfire Sword (which he knows as the sword of Baroth). He doesn't plan to fall prey to it again.

The tower opens to disgorge hordes of creatures at our heroes.  Father and daughter throw themselves into the fray:

Morgan is in a berserker rage and near invulnerable with the power of the hellfire blade. Tinder follows in the wake of his father and sister (though none are aware of the relationship), stepping over the bodies and gore.

Morgan charges into the sanctum of the Evil One.  He leaps forward and buries his sword to the hilt in his foe’s chest.  But:

The Evil One returns to corporeal form, then smashes Morgan’s wrist, causing him to drop the sword.  He lays the Warlord low, and then does the same to his daughter.  He gloats over his foes and begins to torture them with his magic. 

He doesn’t notice Tinder enter the room.  Tinder sees the Hellfire sword and manages to wrench it from the Evil One duplicate.  Jennifer tells the boy to run.  After all, he can’t wield the sword—only someone of the blood of Travis Morgan can do that.

The Evil One dies. His tower crumbles. While Tinder cradles the body of his dead friend, Chakka, Jennifer ponders what just occurred. She knows that only a descendant of her father could wield the sword. Her father had a son, but he’s dead, killed by their father’s own hand—or so everyone assumed.

Morgan remembers nothing of what happened, and Jennifer doesn’t share her suspicions.

Tearfully, Tinder buries Chakka.  He decides to go away for a while.  How could anyone else understand his grief at having to kill someone he loved?

Things to Notice:

• How did the Evil One create that duplicate of himself? (I know, magic, but still, he's never done it before.)
• Why doesn't Jennifer tell her father what happened?

More Things You should Buy

Well, two are new and one is a point to a sale of cool products by fellow bloggers.

Delve! is a 'zine by Johnathan Bingham, proprietor of the Ostensible Cat (astute readers of Weird Adventures will note a coffee shop by that name in the City--a shout out to Johnathan for his work on the project). This issue is basically a weird fantasy module and well-worth the price.  Check it out!

The Manor 'zine by Tim Shorts of Gothbridge Manor, is on its second issue.  The first has been reviewed positively by James at Grognardia (among others).  Reserve your copy today! 

Jack's "greatest hits" compilation/expansion of his always interesting blog posts have been  available in hardcopy for a while--but now that compendium is on sale!  I've talked this one up before. If you've been sitting on the fence, now's your chance.  Follow the links to get your hard or soft copy today. 

A Few of My Favorite Aliens

Aliens species in most science fiction rpgs are of the of the human body animal head variety or just human’s with odd skin color--which might be cool if they gave them so interesting personality.  There are some pretty interesting aliens in games.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Vrusk
From: Star Frontiers
All the species in basic Star Frontiers are pretty cool (Zebulon’s Guide has some clunkers, though) but the corporatist, insect-appearing (though not actually intervebrate) Vrusk are good ones.  They avoided the cliches of evil insectoids and (mostly) hive culture.

Kronin
From: GURPS Aliens
At first blush these guys are a “warrior race” cliche (okay, not just at first blush), but two me there are a couple of interesting things about them.  One is that their societal structure is based around cadres and avoids the usual “Klingon Empire” thing.  Two, their noseless humanoid appearance reminds me of the Acroyear in the Micronauts comics, who are one of the coolest warrior races ever.

K’kree
From: GURPS Traveller: Alien Races 2
Horse-like herbivorous sophonts on a holy crusade to cleanse the universe of meat-eaters. Not only due the K’Kree break with typical humanoid alien design, they turn “peaceful herd animal” expectations on their ear.

Arilou
From: Star Control
These guys are from a series of computer games and are just green-skinned humanoids.  What’s interesting about them is they reference the classic little green men from flying saucers motif.  Their ships are inertialess too, making them unique among the sentient races--and mysterious. The fraal from Alternity's Star*Drive setting are a somewhat similar idea, perhaps better done, but without the cool saucers.

Pentapod
From: Traveller: 2300AD
2300AD had several well done species, but the biotech-using pentapods are my favorite. Interestingly, the pentapods themselves are biotechnology--constructs made by deep sea intelligences on their homeworld.  It’s a set-up that could be easily used for horror, but the pentapods are one of the closest allies of humans.

The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises ends Christopher Nolans Batman trilogy and presents the most coherent story arc in a series of superhero films so far.  While the Marvel and previous DC efforts have mostly been isolated adventures with a few through lines, Nolan and his collaborators have crafted something a bit more novelistic.  This culmination of the trilogy reaps the harvest of seeds sown way back in Batman Begins and (if perhaps only in a subtle and incomplete way) challenges the very notion that “being the superhero” is actually the best thing the protagonist could be doing with his life.

TDKR begins by dealing with the consequences of the previous film.  The ending of The Dark Knight, I had interpreted as just a set-up for further adventure, but instead has led to a Gotham with increased police powers and no need for Batman.  This victory is hollow for its two architects (Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne) because it’s based on a lie.

They don’t have to fret too long about that though, because (as Selena “Catwoman” Kyle) quips to Bruce: “a storm is coming.”  That would be a bulked up Tom Hardy as Bane: a bruiser with a needlessly complicated plan and a weird (but engaging, to me at least) mechanically altered voice.  Pretty soon, the Dark Knight returns, but only to face a beat down at Bane’s hands and a Knightfall. Then, Bane isolates Gotham and makes it a No Man’s Land, that the U.S. government fears to intrude on.

TDKR weaves a lot of elements from various Batman storylines (more than I’ve mentioned above) into a coherent enough for a superhero film whole. There are Nolan twists along the way that are not really surprising if one knows the comic sources, but are still dramatically satisfying.  The only quibble with one of them is that Batman’s world’s greatest detective skills are hardly in evidence.

The film isn't without problems.  The villain’s plot is pretty convoluted and has some logic flaws,which may bug some people. It is a looonngg movie, and there are some things that could have been trimmed.  The Bale scratchy Bat-voice is still in evidence--though I’ve gotten use to it after three films.

It doesn’t offer the “fun” of the Avengers or The Amazing Spider-Man, and it probably isn’t as genre expanding as the film proceeding it, but TDKR delivers on the promise of The Dark Knight by giving a dramatically solid payoff to that film and a strong ending to the series.

Random Rampage Table

On occasion, someone in the City can be heard to ask, incredulously: "What's climbing to the top of that skyscraper?!":

1. nonhuman hominid or primate
2. Gargantuan crustacean (lobstrosity)
3. Fifty-foot showgirl
4. Gi-ant
5. Flesh golem compose of parts of 1-6 other giant creatures
6. Animated statute
8. Man mutated by thaumaturgic accident
9. Gigantolycanthrope
10. Ghost of another creature (roll again to determine which)
11. Amorphous blob or slime
12. Mega-flumph

Have You Heard?

Art by Lester

There's a new crime boss in the Hell's Commot neighborhood of the City.  He's connected to the Hell Syndicate but not (as far as is known) an infernally "made man" himself.  They call him (strangely) "the Mermaid," but his real name may be Marbendlar.

He holds audiences at the Iceberg, a new club off the Circus, where the bright-lights bleed into the darkness of the Commot.  The interior of the club is like an ice cave, all white and glittery with stalactites.  The band plays on a stage that looks like an white ice flow on an indigo night sea.

What power does this weird wizened and legless homunculus have to command the respect (well, fear) of hardcases and tough guys? No one is sure.  Some say that (though he's new to the City) "the Mermaid" has been around a long time, and is used to being in charged.  Some point to accounts of an odd little idol snatched from gill men in  skirmish in the last century.  No pictures exist, but the description is similar.

If you should meet Marbendlar (or whatever his name is), don't call him "the Mermaid."  He hates that.

Hey Kids! Weird Adventures now has a Google+ Page.  Follow here.

Warlord Wednesday: Sins of the Father... (part 2)

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...

"Sins of the Father...Fate of the Son" (part 2)

Warlord Annual #4 (1985)

Written by Cary Burkett; Penciled by Pat Broderick; Inked by Bob Smith.

Synopsis: The Evil One flies around doing some low level terrorizing before magicking himself up a tower.

Meanwhile, Jennifer and Morgan arrive in the magical realm under the river where Morgan tossed the Hellfire sword. They make their way to a castle: the place of the Keepers. A woman greets them and takes them for an audience with the queen.

The beauteous queen knows what the two are there for. She likes Morgan and would grant him the sword but there’s someone else that wants to claim it: Dagon Soul-Stealer, King of the Undead. He’s defeated all other would-be claimants so far. Morgan agrees to fight him, and the queen whisks him away to the land of the undead. The hellfire sword is there, stuck in a rock—but this guy's there too:

Morgan, not wanting to waste any time, shoots Dagon right between the eyes—to no effect. Morgan is on the defensive until gets Dagon to follow him up a cliff, where he’s able to get the Undead King off balance and knock him into a pit of spikes below.

Morgan moves to claim the hellfire sword—but Dagon bursts forth from the pit! He’s got Morgan and plans to finish him off with the hellfire blade. As if it has a mind of its own, the sword slips from his grasp and falls within Morgan’s reach. Morgan snatches it up and decapitates Dagon with it.

The queen explains that the sword chose Morgan. His life force was stronger, and the sword feeds off life force. The blade reclaimed Morgan and will forever belong to him and his heirs.

Morgan and Jennifer are transported back to Skartaris. Ashir points out the Evil One’s tower to them:

Jennifer and Morgan head out for the tower. They don’t notice Tinder tagging along behind them, concerned for his friend, Chakka.

TO BE CONTINUED

Things to Notice:

• There's a sword driven into an anvil in the castle of the Keepers that looks familiar.

Notes:

One wonders what the personification of Death Morgan met in previous issues thinks about this king of the undead?  "Dagon" is the name of Semitic fertility god.

Weird Adventures Mailbag

Occasionally, people gearing up for Weird Adventures games drop me a line to ask about stuff I didn’t cover in the book and haven’t gotten to yet on the blog. Sometime rpg artist, Lester Smolenski wrote just this weekend to ask about languages in the Strange New World.

That’s something I can’t believe I haven’t covered!  Here’s a list of some of the most important ones:

Common: The language of the Union and Borea.  It grew out of a trade pidgin of predominantly Lluddish extraction, but informed by various Gallian dialects, Dwergen, and words borrowed from several Native tongues.  It’s distinct from Lluddish, but the two are (mostly) mutually intelligible.

Esparian: A language family originating in Ealderde, but now more widely spoken in Asciana and Zingaro.  It comes in several ethnic/national varieties including Zingaran, San Zancudan, Puerto Oroan, and Hidalgan, with various degrees of mutual intelligibility.

Gallian: A language family with varieties spoken in the states of the Gallian League and some places in the New World.  Varieties or dialects include Neustrien, Poitêmien, and  Averoignat.  The last is not fully intelligible to speakers of the first two.

Hobogoblin cant: A Common-based argot.

Korambeckish: The language of the eastern Empire of Korambeck.

Lluddish: The language of Lludd, Alban, and the Mer-folk.  See also Common.

Ruthenian: The language family originating in Ruthenia.

Staarkish: A language family of Western Ealderde.  Varieties include Staarkish proper, Luthan, Graustarkian, and Doppelkinnian, which are distinct but mutually intelligible.

Vatilian: A language of southern Ealderde.  All varieties (including Trysteran, Tryphemian, and Bengodian) are mutually intelligible.

Yianese: A language family of the Empire of Yian. It has many varieties.

Beneath the Fog Sea

The children of port cities are wont to crowd the docks when any airship comes in, but none generate the excitement that the return of a vessel laden with strange subnebulous treasures does. Many’s the young lad or lass who dreams of one day being one of the daring divers who brave weird miasmata and battle strange creatures to win fortune and fame.

The modern world has four strata. The highest is the upper atmosphere of relatively benign flying things. Just beneath are the High-Lands of plateaus and mountain-sides where humanity dwells. Lapping at these lands at the lowest elevations is the Fog Sea, a region of roiling, glowing, multicolored mists. These mists are eldritch things: toxic, mutagenic, or both, with lengthy and concentrated exposure. Inhospitable though this region may be to humans, there are many flying or floating creatures which make it their home.

The deepest depths of the fog shroud the lowest strata: the Low-Lands--the Undersea. Here one may find true oceans of water (gray and toxic from absorbing the overhanging fog), but more importantly, here lie the ruins of a once great civilization. This is thought to be the ancient home of man--before whatever happened, happened, forcing him to seek higher ground. Ancient treasures--both of wealth and knowledge--were left in these ruins. Though sailing a whole vessel through the fog is generally considered too risky a move, divers and diving craft are sent down to reclaim these treasures.

The fog isn’t the only danger. If the strange flying and floating things weren’t enough, the ruined cities themselves are inhabited by monsters. Some are mutated animals, others are humanoids--perhaps the degenerate descendants of the humans left behind. These savages view divers as violators of their territory at best--and potential meals at worse. In the shadowy depths divers do battle with these creatures, steel against steel--as firearms often misfire dangerously when submerged in the fog. The psychoactive properties of the mists have given strange powers to the creatures that dwell in it--but sometimes limited exposure does the same for divers, too.

Still, despite the dangers of death or loss of humanity, the rewards are great. There is no shortage of youths willing to sign on for a voyage beneath the Fog Sea.

If You're Just Joining Us

Art by Adam Moore

I'm still on vacation, but I noticed I picked up a couple of followers in the last few days and got a nice review over at Grognardia, so for new visitors I figured I'd point you to where you can get more information on Weird Adventures or the City.

Here's the link to an index of Weird Adventures related posts.  I haven't indexed all the back catalog, though, so it's worth perusing the previous posts.

I've got a Google+ game going in the City, though it's on vacation, as well, at the moment.  We've been using Lorefinder (Pathfinder/GUMSHOE mashup).  You can read about the whole weird affair beginning here. The first teaser post for their next mystery is here.

If you want another Weird Adventures review, the Gibbering Mouther has written a recent (and cogent) one here.

Regular programming will resume soon.  Stay tuned.

Warlord Wednesday

My issue by issue review is on hiatus this week while I'm on vacation.  Instead, I'll offer up a bit of educational content.  From 1st Issue Special #8, Travis Morgan explains the "science" of the hollow world of Skartaris:

The Multi-faceted Gnome

art by Filip Cerovecki

The gnomes of the distant future Earth known as the Planet of the Elves are dwarf-like beings of pure crystal. Not earthly beings, they are visitors from some elemental realm who came to this world long ago as colonists or explorers. They are contemplative folk, given to pondering the workings of the universe and uttering cryptic statements.  They have some sort of accord with the Mushroom Men, but often have some antipathy with the indiscriminate mining done by kobolds.

All gnomes ever encountered have appeared male.  Theere reproductive cycle is unknown but seems to involve rare elements and zealously guarded underground nests.

GNOMES
#App.: 1d8 AC: 2 HD: 3 Move: 60' Atks: 1 (1d6 or by weapon) Special: crystalline creature taking no damage from fire, cold, or electricity-based attacks.  Acid only does half-damage.  They are also magic resistant, making all saving throws against such at a +3. Sonic attacks do 1.5x damage. Gnomes can move through rock.

Belt of Vigor

Minor magic items are not uncommon in the City and its world.  These are typical of modern manufacture and not as powerful or as dangerous (mostly) as the magical equipment of adventurers.

The Health Belt was actually a girdle which ameliorated fatigue and bolstered the constitution.  It’s no surprise the primary use of this device is as an aid to amorous activity. Some adventurers use it to provide an extra bit of stamina and edge against poisons and shocks to the system.

[+2 bonus to Constitution and all that entails including hit points. These benefits last as long as the belt is worn, but wearing it longer than 3 hours is likely result in physical harm: 30% chance + 10% for every additional hour of a permanent Constitution loss of 1 point.]

Stuck in My Head

I keep thinking about a post-apocalyptic fantasy plus super-science game, played in FASERIP, maybe. Something like a well-known toy and cartoon property, but less kiddy: like the equivalent of Savage Sword of Conan to its Conan the Adventurer.

A world where the heroes are like this:

And they fight foes like this:

In situations like this:

Mushroom Men

The Mushroom men or Myconoids are strange humanoids that emerged on Earth in the ages after Man.  Treated with mistrust by dwarves for their pranksterism and purveyance of psychedelic drugs, they'e friends of the satyrs (and some elves) for those same reasons.

These fungal sapients appear as tiny humanoids (6 inches to around 1 foot in height) wearing wide-brimmed hats--actually their “caps.” Leaders among them tend to have red caps while most others have powder blue.  Leaders may also have fleshy tendrils that give the appearance of a beard.

Mushroom men emerge from their underground collectives to explore the surface, trade with other races, or perform odd rituals under the full moon. Myconids are living chemical factories. They generate powdery toxins which they can blow into the faces animal species to cause hallucinations and confusion on a failed saving throw. They can generate other sorts of mind-affecting spores (such as sleep, amnesia, or hypnotism), which the red caps among them may release into the area once per day.

Owing to their fungal biology, Mushroom Men are hard to kill, despite their small size. They get a +2 to all nonmagic saving throws (except fire related), are immune to poisons unless specifically designed for them, and are 25% magic resistant.

MUSHROOM MEN: #App. 2-12; Move 60’; AC 4 HD 1 Atks: 1 (various special like toxin effects)

Warlord Wednesday: Sins of the Father...Fate of the Son"

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...

"Sins of the Father...Fate of the Son" (part 1)

Warlord Annual #4 (1985)

Written by Cary Burkett; Penciled by Pat Broderick; Inked by Bob Smith.

Synopsis: A group of Bog Men looking for mates attacks a group of Shamballan refugees making their way to their Queen’s camp. This proves to be a miscalculation, as the refugees are being guarded by Travis Morgan, the Warlord.

Meanwhile, Ashir and Jennifer have become convinced that Tinder stole the gem contained the essence of the Evil One from the locked chest in which Jennifer had placed it.  She casts a spell to find him, but when they locate the boy he doesn’t have the gem. They realize that Chakka—Tinder’s too smart simian friend—must have it.

Morgan is relating to his wife, Tara, his recent adventures when their interrupted by a cry—a cry like “a mixture of animal pain and evil personified.”  He runs toward the caverns it came from, but Jennifer, Ashir, and Tinder have already beat him there.

They find Chakka hunched over the gem.   He turns:

The Evil One has Chakka and he transforms the poor creature’s body into a hooved, demonic form.  Jennifer’s magic is ineffective and is Morgan’s sword.  The Evil One remembers Morgan from his last defeat.  Last time, his link was a relatively easily destroyed book, but this time it’s a gem that he places in his forehead to keep out of their grasp.

He uses his power to stick our heroes to the ceiling, planning to toy with them later—if they don’t starve before he returns.  Using her magic jewels and the powers of concentration of the entire group, Jennifer is able to free them.

But one can they possibly defeat the Evil One?  Jennifer has been reading some old scrolls Faaldren brought her from Castle Deimos, and she has an idea.  It turns out the Evil One had an earlier incarnation than the one they destroyed previously.  An incarnation that subjugated that era of the Age of Wizards, until:

The three came together and used their skills to forge a magic sword:

Baroth, last of the legendary Dragon-Lords, used the sword to slay the Evil One.  In dying, the Evil One cursed the sword so that any wielding it would eventually be dominated by bloodlust.  The blade became known as the Hellfire Sword….The Hellfire Sword Morgan chunked into a lake back in issue #43, lest it dominate him!  A woman’s hand had reached up from the lake and taken the sword.

They need it back. Luckily, Jennifer has an idea where they might get it.  Tara is worried the curse will return, but Morgan points out they don’t have a choice.  Jennifer transports the two of them away with her magic.

TO BE CONTINUED

Things to Notice:

• Morgan and Shakira are riding the tricorns they got in the previous issue.

Notes:

The Age of Wizards we see in this issue seems more cod-Tolkienish than the more Wizards-esque Age of Wizard Kings from the Grell issues.

Let's Go to the Video...

In case you haven't see enough of me on video, here's another I chance.  I hosted a round table--this one between Evan, Jeremy, Richard and Robert, wherein they discuss their cool rpg settings in the science fantasy vein.

Check it out.  At least skim it for the good parts--and then check out their blogs.