Warlord Wednesday: The Secret of the Crystal Skull

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

"The Secret of the Crystal Skull"

Warlord #106 (June 1986)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Art by Ron Randall

Synopsis: Morgan and Shakira ride into Shalmandar, the farthest point on the map, closer to their goal of the Greenfire Sea and the wizard Hagar-Zinn.  Morgan hopes Hagar-Zinn can save his daughter from a magical malady of rapid aging.

Shakira seems startled by something: a wanted poster showing a man wearing a collar just like Shakira’s. 

A woman’s cry distracts Morgan from further consideration. He rides in and makes short work of the ruffians attacking her palanquin. The woman is Ladah Panar, member of prominent family, who was traveling into town with quite a bit of gold to give alms to the poor. She recognizes Morgan as the hero of the New Atlantean War and offers our heroes the hospitality of her home.

Ladah Panar’s “house” is practically palatial. She gives our heroes a tour ending up in her husband’s treasure room. Her favorite piece is a large diamond:

Both black diamonds are rumored to the eye sockets of a crystal skull, but no one knows where that might be (That's what we call foreshadowing). 

Morgan asks about the safety of the treasures. Ladah assures him that not only are they behind a thick door, with a small air vent the only other entrance, but disturbance of any object would trigger the sounding of brass bells as an alarm.

That night, when everyone is asleep Shakira turns into cat form, and leaps out a window. A little later, Morgan is awakened by the treasure room bells.  When he arrives at the room, he sees an unusual thief escaping: a black cat!

While Ladah’s guards pursue the cat, Morgan goes to Shakira’s room. He confronts her about theft. She asks if he ever consider that it might be another cat? Then she shuts the door on him.

Meanwhile, Machiste and Mariah have been born by the undead rowers to an island.  They’re greeted by the island’s inhabitants:

Back in Shalmandar, at another mansion, Shakira finds Damon, the man from the wanted poster. He's also the thief who stole the black diamond for Imag Grann. It turns out, they know each other:

Shakira knew that he must have stolen the diamond and came looking for him. She convinces him to take it back to Ladah, hoping to get some reward. Before they can get away, Imag shows up, shoots Damon with a crossbow, and takes the diamond.

Conveniently, Morgan comes riding up. He goes after Imag and finds him in a cellar with the crystal skull in a strange device. Imag knows who Morgan is because he’s psychic and was eavesdropping on him talking to Ladah. He believes the crystal skull and the diamonds are accumulators that transmit psychic energy to whoever’s wearing an associated headdress.

Imag levitates. then flies, then throws Morgan around with telekinesis. He’s able to read Morgan’s mind and knows when Morgan realizes he will have to kill him. Imag takes Morgan’s sword from him with mind-power—but Morgan pulls his gun and shoots Imag between the eyes. Imag could read Morgan’s mind, but Morgan’s mind was quicker.

He returns to Shakira and Damon.. As he carries the wounded Damon, he warns Shakira the thief may not make it. Shakira assures Morgan that she will make sure Damon does.

Things to Notice:

• This is the first time we see a man who can transform into a cat in the saga.
• Morgan (and Fleisher's) musings on Shakira's origins continues.
• Speaking of Damon, he looks a bit like Douglas Fairbanks in Thief of Bagdad (1924).

Where it Comes From:
The crystal skull was inspired by the real world arifacts and some of the paranormal and New Age speculation about them.  Warlord got here before Indiana Jones!

One of Ladah Panar's treasures comes from Dilmun.  Dilmun is a place mentioned by ancient Mesopotamian records. It shows up in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Presumably, there's one in Skartaris, too.

Unmaschal and it's inhabitants were inspired by a couple Clark Ashton Smith stories. "Necromancy in Naat" provides the wizards using undead servants and taking advantage of shipwrecks, while the torture angle comes from "The Isle of Torturers."

Get Yourself Some Knowledge

If you missed out on it before you should really check out Tim Shorts's one-shot adventure Knowledge Illuminates.  It's now available in a 'zine sort of size with new art by Dylan Hartwell.  I got my copy last night and it looks good.  Get yours here.

From Davy Jones' Locker

Besides the riches dredged up from the wrecks at the bottom of Dead Man's Cove, the treasure grotto of the Phantom Diver contains several maritime magic items:

Spyglass: This brass spyglass allows the user to look back into the past as well as into the distance. 1d4 indicates hours, days, months, or years into the past; d20 indicates how many, at GM's discretion.

Diver's Helmet: This antique diver's helmet smells of the briny depths. It allows the wearer to see the shades of things that have died in the area, all the way back to the dawn of life. Spirits appear almost like neon lights, translucent, faintly glowing and colorful.

Whaler's Harpoon: This antique and somewhat rusted tool has a blade strangely unblunted by time. It's a normal weapon against man-sized or smaller creatures but +1 against large adversaries and +2 against anything bigger than that.

Walrus Tusk Scrimshaw: Yellowed tusk engraved with a swirling pattern that perhaps depicts eddies and currents. When held, it allows command of pinnipeds and communication with selkies. Hungry killer whales and sharks, however, will be drawn to anyone holding it.

Hunters

Last week on G+, there was a discussion of Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter that led into discussion of a game in that vein (heh). I got drafted to GM for a small group. After doing some thinking on it this weekend, this is what I've come up with so far:

As the 19th-Century looms, an evil rises in Europe. Monsters that were thought to have been relegated to legend centuries before are reappearing. A brave few take up arms to fight this menace.

Beyond Captain Kronos, you might think of it as Brotherhood of the Wolf meets Vampire Circus.

The Look and Feel: Somewhere around 1800 in the dark heart of Europe, mist-cloaked and shadow-shroud, fixed between medievalism and modernity; where the stark shades of expressionistic Universal Horror landscapes are pierced by the lurid costumes and ample, heaving bosoms of Hammer--and of course, thick, deep red blood; where blades flash with an anachronistic frequency that Zorro would approve of.

Inspirations: (in addition to the above) the Solomon Kane stories, Marvel's historical tales in Dracula Lives and Tomb of Dracula Magazine, I Sell the Dead, Baltimore: Or, the Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, The Vampire Lovers, The Fearless Vampire Killers, Dracula vs. Zorro, just about any Hammer Frankenstein film.

Houses of Horror

Last night I caught up on the first three episodes of American Horror Story: Asylum. This season takes us far from last season's ghost-crowded “Murder House” in present day Los Angeles to an aging asylum run by the Catholic Church in 1964 Massachusetts. The first season was a lurid (at times almost to the point of parody) romp through just about every modern horror trope the creators could pack in--and was utterly entertaining for it. The second season seems to be shaping up in exactly the same way.

Let’s check the list so far: alien abduction, snake-pit asylum, sadistic nun into corporal punishment, even more sadistic mad doctor with a deformed monster, masked serial killer on the loose,and oh yeah, demonic possession. That’s just the first three episodes; hell, that’s actually just the first two.

It occurs to me that this might be a great set-up for a horror rpg campaign. In the Call of Cthulhu mode, a lot of horror rpgs center on going places and investigating things.  What if all the mysteries were in one edifice? One pretty large place could be the nexus for a whole lot of weirdness.  It could be the horror rpg version of the dungeoncrawl. Maybe it would need to be relatively short in the grand scheme of campaigns, but I think it’s an idea worth exploring. Do you dare enter?

House of Fear

Mingus Rooke told them there was an apartment building in Solace where another angelic horn could be found. Rooke had used Gabriel's to halt the Machineries of the Night before. Our heroes thought that might be their ticket to doing so again.

In last night's Halloween edition of our Weird Adventures campaign, Boris and Cornelius found themselves trapped inside the building with Erskine and Diabolico on the outside. The building was sealed; all of it's inhabitants were trapped, except for the one old man who ran out raving when they opened the door--and promptly died.

The buildings residents were being held captive by an extradimensional monster: a flowing, translucent blob creature. It seemed to in and out of the Material Plane. Boris and Cornelius first encountered it in the basement, but it moved around the building with impunity.

They went through the apartments, one by one. There were seductive, aging flappers, a  crazy old man trying to cast a banishing ritual, a room full of hostile golliwog dolls, and other eccentric inhabitants. Eventually, they found the weird horn in the hands of a jazz musician. Cornelius blew the horn.  It knocked him unconscious, but blew open the door so they were able to escape.

Mingus Rooke was waiting for them. He revealed the horn actually belonged to a fallen angel.  He said it wouldn't be able to help them destroy the Machineries of the Night--and the forces of Heaven would be coming for it soon, in any case. Rooke had known this from the beginning and tricked them into retrieving it and freeing the building's inhabitants.

Rooke did give them a little advice that would help them, though: destroy the dodecahedron and the heart-string.  The latter they had; the other...

Warlord Wednesday: Halloween Edition

Travis Morgan and his friends have encountered a lot of frightening things so far on Warlord Wednesday. Here are a few of the horrifying highlights:

The Children of Ba'al (issue #23) didn't seem that scary at first, being gold skinned and good-looking and all--but then they decided to sacrifice Morgan to their god and cooked at ate some of the brutish Orms.

While we're on the subject of sacrifices and gods, when the android Bogg (issue #39) invited Morgan to the feast of Agravar, Morgan had no idea he was going to get fed to a worm-thing.

Lest you think it's only Morgan that get's into these fixes, recall the Machiste and Mariah survived a shipwreck to get rescued by:

Which probably qualifies as "going from bad to worse."

Morgan also encounters horrors that are pretty appealing at first glance.  Azrael, the personification of death, is one of them.  Another is the sexy Cobra Queen from issue #28.

The greatest horror of them all would have to be Morgan's recurrent nemesis, Deimos the Demon-Priest.  Deimos was never so horrific as when he was a head on a hand after being chopped to pieces in his previous encounter with Morgan:

Spirit of the Season

In the City, it's the month of Redfall and Revenant Night approaches.  Read all about it in this classic post.  While you're dipping into the FtSS vaults, you might want to refresh you memory on the Red Dwarf of Motorton, whose powers seem increased on that night.

Monstrous Monday: Jumpin' Jack

He attacked women in the night in the streets of Victorian London, slashing them with knives or claws. He was said to be of hideous, inhuman appearance and able to make superhuman leaps and even breath fire.  Like that other guy a half-century later, he was christened "Jack."  Spring-heeled Jack.

Beneath a black cloak, Spring-heeled Jack wears a slick outfit like an oilskin (or maybe latex or some alien material?) and a helmet. He's said to have eyes like balls of fire and a diabolic countenance. His hands end in metallic claws. Unlike the latter day Jack, the Spring-Heeled gent seems more interested in causing fear than murder. He slashes victims' clothes, claws at them, then bounds away, disappearing to the night.

Read more about his exploits here.

Spring-Heeled Jack 
AC 4  HD 4  #Attacks: 1 claw +1 to hit (2d4) or breath  Special: Fearful Countenance: as per fear spell on a failed save; Leaping: can jump 20 ft. vertically or horizontally; Fire-breathing: 10 ft. cone, 2d6 fire dmg. (save for half) once every 1d4 rounds.

Follow the links below for more MONSTROUS Monday!

Monster Mashup

Classic monsters have uses beyond horror (or horror-themed) games. A number of monstrous crossovers in other media show how they can rear their ugly heads in games of other genres.

The astute Marvel reader may be aware that Solomon Kane fought Dracula (Though don't go looking for those stories in any of Marvel's Essential collections. I hear it's in the Dracula Omnibus, though ), but fewer may be aware that Dracula faced Zorro in Old California in a 1993 limited series from Topps. Frankenstein's monster gets around, too.  He encounters Tarzan in a 1996 Dark Horse limited when jungle lord tries to prevent Thomas Edison from recreating Victor von Frankenstein's experiment. (The collection Tarzan: Le Monstre also includes encounters with the Phantom of the Opera and Jekyll and Hyde).

Wold-Newton afficiandos among you that the pulp hero G-8 is rumored to be one of the pilots that took down King Kong. In "After King Kong Fell" Philip J. Farmer suggests that Doc Savage and the Shadow were hanging around that day, too.

Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series is an alternate history where the protagonists fail to defeat Dracula like they did in Bram Stoker's novel, and the count's villainous real estate scheme leads to a vampiric takeover of the British Empire.  The series goes from the 1888 to the 1980s.  Here's a free sample chronicling the vampiric 70s, with a lot of cameos from the likes of Travis Bickle, Shaft and Blade: "Andy Warhol's Dracula."

The monsters needn't be the villains. "Black as Pitch, from Pole to Pole" by Howard Waldrop and Steven Utley takes Frankenstein's monster into Pellucidar. Neil Gaiman's short-story and comic book serial Only the End of the World Again puts Larry (the Wolf Man) Talbot in Innsmouth and pits him against Deep One cultists.

You get the idea. So check out some of these great sources of inspiration in time for Halloween.  Also, take a look at this previous post for more pulpy appearances of classic monsters.

Books That Put the Weird in the West

Here's two book recommendations that bring a little bit of the fantastic into an Old West (or old west type) setting:

I've recommended some of Cherie Priest's work in this vein before--both the Steampunkian Boneshaker and the more horrific historical Those Who Went Remain There Still. Dreadful Skin reminds me more of the latter, though what it reminds me of most is Lansdale's Dead in the West or Collins'  Dead Mans Hand. It's a set of linked short-stories about a former nun pursuing a supernatural menace across Post-Civil War America. It's episodic and none of the stories builds to a climax in quite the way I would have liked, but it's a quick and entertaining read with some nice set pieces: the first story is a cat and mouse game with a werewolf aboard a steamboat trapped by a storm mid-river.

Felix Gilman's "Lightbringers and Rainmakers" is a a free story at Tor.com set in the Western-ish secondary world of his novel The Half-Made World (which I recommended here) and the upcoming sequel The Rise of Ransom City. In brief, a frontier is being made from the more malleable reality of the wilderness, and humanity is caught between two opposing forces: the technologically more advanced, oppressive order of the Line and the violent chaos represented by the Gun. The short story weaves an epistolary tale of frontier towns and confidence hucksters in the rich world Gilman has built.

New Flavors of Frankenstein

I’ve got Frankenstein on the brain after catching TCM’s Frankenstein Double Feature last night. Anybody who has read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein knows the literary monster is pretty different from (most) cinematic and comic book versions.  Why should we be limited to just mute and misunderstood or articulate and angry in our rpgs, though?  What other creatures can some alternate Victor Frankenstein bring to life?

Movie Frankenstein's monster is often a lumbering and destructive brute--and often misunderstood.  He reminds me a bit of King Kong in all except size.  Scale him up, and you’ve got a kaiju. The Japanese have already done that for us, but hey, we don’t necessarily have to use their version. (Actually, Toho got the idea from an aborted Willis O'Brien project with King Kong.) Now Victor’s got an even better reason not to make him a bride!

Or maybe something less monstrous? A gold-skinned artificial man created by scientists playing God would also describe Marvel’s Adam Warlock (originally known as HIm). Maybe their creation is actually mankind’s natural successor.  Gotta make way for the homo superior, as Bowie would have it. This artificial ubermensch and his bride (and progeny) might choose to save the world that hates and fears them, or maybe (in the words of Victor Frankenstein) they’re  a “race of devils…propagated upon the earth who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror.”

Vampire Hunter D heads straight from Dracula into the post-apocalypse (and in an interesting twist, Mary Shelley did write an end of the world novel, The Last Man), so why not Frankenstein? Maybe the monster is a gunman dispensing justice in a post-apocalyptic waste haunted by mutants as ugly as him, or maybe the world is overrun zombie apocalypse-style by monstrosities created by a monster following in the footsteps of his mad scientist creator? Either the future might be pretty grim.

Warlock Wednesday

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Warlord Wednesday for special guest column by Jim Shelley of the Flashback Universe Blog.  Here's Warlock Wednesday:

I've often felt that Jim Starlin's comic book stories had elements in them that made them feel like a role-playing game. I'm sure it's just common inspirations or coincidence  but it's there. The Adam Warlock story "Death Ship" (Strange Tales #179, 1975) is a great example.

The issue starts with Warlock recapping the previous issue (wherein his failure to protect a beautiful damsel in distress leads him to vow vengeance on her killers, the feared Universal Church of Truth.) His quest has brought him to a huge slave ship.

It turns out to be much like star-faring dungeon.

Warlock, like a lot of adventurers, doesn't really have a strategy: he just attacks the ship head on. This of course results in his capture. When he wakes up, he is brought before Captain Autolycus, the commander of the Death Ship.

Autolycus is a name taken from Greek mythology, meaning "The wolf itself." Starlin just probably thought it sounded cool. By the name and rank, it's clear that the Captain is the Ship's boss so expect him and Adam to face off before the end of the issue.

After the meeting, Warlock is thrown into one of the ship's holding cells where he meets a bizarre assortment of alien slaves. As the creatures explain their plight to Warlock, Starlin employs a rather clever layout trick to present this portion of the narrative:

This split screen design isn't something normally used comics, but you will find it employed quite a bit in another medium: rpg monster or character write-ups.

Warlock is next introduced to a character who definitely gives the story an rpg feel: Pip The Troll. Now, aside from Pip's resemble to a mythological creature (which is in itself suggestive of his origins), he's a comic sidekick like Sancho Panza or Planchet.  In other words, an entertaining henchman. Pip quickly becomes a welcomed addition to the Adam's entourage.

Pip tries to persuade Warlock to lead a revolt on the ship, but he refuses (but not before recounting a rather hippy-ish parable on the corrupting nature of power.) However, Warlock finally agrees to help them with their uprising (just not lead it) and with that, he's off to spend the next 3 pages attacking the ships guards. To be honest, I'm not sure how this is any less "Dark Force-y" than taking a temporary leadership role, but let's not quibble as it results in this amazing 17(!) panel sequence by Starlin:

So Warlock makes his way through the various "levels" of the ship. He eventually comes face to face with the Autolycus (we all knew it was coming down to this didn't we?), leading to the issue's final battle. Fortunately for Warlock, Autolycus is gracious enough to tell our hero all his stats and abilities before the fighting begins:

Warlock is outmatched by the Captain and spends the next couple of pages getting his golden ass handed to him. Right as Autolycus is about to deliver his death blow, a strange thing happens. The gem in Adam's forehead suddenly seems to come alive and sucks out Autolycus's soul.

That's right. The artifact that the character had, but didn't really know what it did, somehow was integral to solving the adventure. This bit of deus ex machina might reflect on Starlin as a storyteller.  It also might or might not tell us something about what sort of DM he would be.

From here, Warlock leaves with Pip the Troll to continue his quest to defeat the leader of the Universal Church of Truth, the Magus. As the saga progresses, his "party" will be joined by an evil wizard Thanos and a sexy assassin Gamora, but that's a tale for another "session" of Warlock Wednesday.

Automata for the People

In the City today, automata are mostly in the hands of the rich, but the proponents of the technology hope that one day they will be labor-saving devices for all humanity. Since automata have been a focus of our current G+ Weird Adventures game, I though it might be a good time to talk about them a bit here.

The history of automata goes back to the golems and clockwork curiosities of antiquity. When golems relied on an animating spirit to make them move, clockwork devices were often given life by strictly mechanical properties. Modern automata engineering borrows from both these practices. Automata have mechanic joints and internal machinery to give them a wider range of applications but often rely on a vitalizing element like golems.

Theoretical advances over the past thirty years have allowed vast improvements in powering automata.  While the Steam Men of half a century ago were dependent on boilers full of coal, and the clockwork animals of Ealderdish imperial courts had springs that needed winding, the modern marvels of Mikola Donander and Hew Hazzard often utilize power broadcast through the air. So far this broadcast power is short-ranged and possibly susceptible to thaumaturgic blocking, but in the future, whole cities might run on it.

Even more advanced automata harness the power of the sun itself.  Tiny sparks of pure alchemical fire, generated in heavily shielded atomic athanors, allowed the primal force of creation to be used as a power source--and perhaps a "seed" for the germination of a living soul. The City's protector, the Titan, is the only automata known to be powered in such a way, but the future of this technology is truly limitless.

Boris and the Spider

Our Weird Adventures campaign continued last night, with Dungeon of Signs Gustie subbing in for Chris Sims. After battling the automata last issue, the gang was more determined than ever to find the "heartstring" of the alien dodecahedron to deny the enemy the ability to bring the Machineries of Night back to life. 

While Hazzard worked on a psychic tracking device attuned to the Machineries' frequency, the gang took a key they found inside Carmody's automaton "Guy Friday," Laurence, and went to check out Carmody's Paladin Hill brownstone. There was a secret lab under the stairs (which the key opened). It was guarded by a spider-like automaton that shot lightning out of it's single eye!

There was no way past the spider. Luckily. Boris made a trick shot and disrupted the wall-mounted switch for the broadcast power.  With the spider down, they searched the room and found parts for a gynoid automaton (supporting their theory about Olimpia), the original manuscript of the Machineries of Night manifesto they first found at Atwill's place--and a golden, dendritic thing they took to be the heartstring.

After striking a deal to sell Carmody's revolutionary automata designs to Hazzard and giving him the heartstring for safe-keeping, the group headed uptown to Solace to see if they could meet with the man who defeated the Machineries of Night before: Mingus Rooke.

At his night-club, the Blue Hound, Rooke told them about the machine invasion of Hardluck: The Machineries of Night fell from the sky and used the people and things there as raw material to build more of itself.  It might have overrun the whole world, if Rooke hadn't blown the horn of the angel Gabriel and stopped it.

When pressed, he told them he knows where another angelic horn is: an apartment building right there in Solace! An apartment building in the grip of something evil...  

Warlord Wednesday: Stalkers of Shinnar

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...

"Stalkers of Shinnar"

Warlord #105 (May 1986)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Art by Ron Randall

Synopsis: Morgan’s quest to find the sorcery that can save Jennifer continues. He’s also still pondering the possible link between the alchemist he encountered with a penchant for changing women into were-cats and Shakira. (He’s not going to keep pondering this forever, trust me.) He snaps out of contemplation when Shakira returns and tells him there’s a warrior nearby being pursued by burly lizard men on weird mounts.

Morgan and Shakira charge in on the side of the human. His name is J’Huranda, and he’s not too shabby warrior in his own right. He saves Shakira when one of the lizards has a lasso around her neck. 

Soon, only two lizards are left and they're running away. J’Huranda is insistent they go after them and finish them off. The three give chase.  

Along the way, J’Huranda doesn't waste the opportunity to flirt with Shakira.  Morgan tries to keep the two focused on the task at hand.

At a fork in the road, they find a guy who was almost run down by the lizards.  He points out the way they went. After the three ride off, he heads down to a nearby stream where he happens to find a wounded man that is a double for J’Huranada.  Before dying, the warrior says: “He turned on me…took my—my…”

Meanwhile, a disguised Machiste and Mariah are at sea, still trying to get back to Kiro. In a heavy wind, the ship runs into some rocks and sinks. Our heroes have to climb aboard a piece of wreakage Titanic-style.

Then, when it seems things can’t get worse:

In Kiro, the usurper N’Dosma, believing Machiste dead, has assumed the throne.  He has a fake decree from Machiste blessing the whole thing. The people of Kiro aren’t all buying it, though.  N’Dosma’s go a bad reputation.

Back on the trail of the lizards, J’Huranda and Shakira are getting friendlier. Morgan is worried they don’t know much about this guy; Shakira accuses him of being jealous.

Coming into a canyon, the tracks suggest to Morgan the lizards have probably set up an ambush. The three decide to do a little ambushing of their own. They come up from behind where the lizards lie in wait.

J’Huranda swiftly kills one, but the other surrenders and tries to get Morgan to listen to him.  He keeps calling him “earthman.” Before he can tell Morgan more, J’Huranda throws a dagger in his back.

Morgan begins to confront the warrior, but J’Huranda doubles over with the pain he’s intermittently been having and goes to find Shakira to get some of those herbs she has.  Morgan is distracted by a weak cry from the dying lizard.

Shakira runs to the side of the staggering J’Huranda—who suddenly turns her!

The lizard is dead. Shakira comes up behind Morgan and says that it’s for the best. She says J’Huranda rode off now that the threat was done. Morgan isn’t fooled he puts his blade to her throat:

The creature attacks Morgan and starts to take his form. The two struggle, but Morgan puts two bullets in him. The thing starts to turn into a formless dough.  Shakira runs up and Morgan fills her in on what happened. The melichor was an alien creature that feed off the life energy of other creatures to length it’s life. The lizards were Stalkers from Shinnar—a task force sent to stop it.

The two ride away, glad the ordeal is over.  As they go, the a portion of the dough takes the form of a nearby caterpillar and kills the original…

Things to Notice:

• We get a couple of Skartarian names infested with that bane of fantasy nomeclature: the apostrophe.
• Shakira continues to wear a loincloth (like she did last issue) instead of her traditional fur bikini. Her sword seems to mysteriously appear and disappear.

Where it Comes From:
Good guy being less attractive than the bad guy is an old trope in science fiction--as is the shapechanging alien, of course.  Melichor and Shinnar are both surnames.

N'Dosma, the usurper in Kiro, may owe his name to "Sodosma" from the Clark Ashton Smith story "Empire of the Necromancers."

Cold Hands, Cold Heart

Rarely and for reasons unknown, a polar explorer or scientist working in refrigeration is exposed to the perfect cold of para-elemental ice and does not die. Instead, such an individual is infused with elemental essence and transformed into a Cold Man.

Though Cold Men radiate cold from within, they begin to weaken in above freezing temperatures. To survive for long in warmer climes, they require insulated clothing. Their transformation alters their appearance: Their skin becomes blue-tinged like ice and their hair turns white.  Personality changes occur, too; they become sociopaths--and often murderous ones with contempt for “warm-blooded" humanity.

Cold Men can damage living things with the intense cold of their touch.  The most dangerous ones are scientists who use their newly enhanced insights into cold to develop rods or guns through which they can focus and concentrate their cold into a deadly, freezing blast.

Cold Man
HD: 4  AC: 5  Attack: 1d6 (cold touch, or by weapon)  Special: Ice blast weapon (3d6, save for half dmg.), immunity from cold, double damage from fire.

WaRP stats:
Attack: 3 dice  Defense: 3 dice  Traits: Cold-based (immune to cold, radiates cold, susceptible to fire/heat) 4 dice; ice blast weapon (5 dice, 3 shots)  Flaw: requires insulated clothing or begins to weaken (add cumulative penalty die).

Previously...

Our Weird Adventures game got postponed another week.  So memories don't get dim during the hiatus, I thought I'd review where things stand with the major NPCs in this tale:

William Carmody: A brilliant scientist working on automata.  He was in possession of an alien artifact that appears to have been related to the Machineries of Night.  He's now a brain in a jar with a bad memory and a automaton caretaker.

Olimpia Kapec: Carmody's missing fiancee and lab assistant.  Maybe Carmody's would-be murderer's nabbed her?  So why can no trace of her be found except for a few photos?

Hew Hazzard: Aviation industrialist.  He helped our heroes fight off attacking automata. They could use an ally like.  Still, how far can they trust him?

Silas Atwill: Hazzard's chief of Automata Research--and secretly an acolyte of the cloaked and black armor wearing Master of the machine uprising. The Master disintegrated him rather than let him be captured.  He had a copy of a strange manifesto referencing the Machineries of Night in in his home.

Eisenmensch: Men made more (and perhaps less) than human in the service of their fatherland.  Some of these disgruntled cyborg veterans seem to have been recruited into the Master's cause: transforming all of humanity into machines.

Machineries of Night: Is this the black mass of tiny cogs and wheels beneath Greasy Lake?  The presence that seems to make the psychic Loone a bit queasy.  When the Machineries first invaded it took blowing Gabriel's heavenly horn to defeat them.  Is all they need the complete dodecahedron to live again?

The Master: Thin, with a hidden face and distorted voice. dark heart of the mystery...

Whispers in the Dark

Old houses and buildings sometimes become havens for the strange creatures called babblers.  People seldom get a good look at babblers: they're skilled at staying hidden, owing to their ability to contort and flatten their bodies and their chameleon-like power to blend into their surroundings.  What fragmentary descriptions exist suggest they are approximately three to three and a half feet tall and look like a scrawny cross between man, gecko, and frog. They have large, milky yellow eyes and many have strange ruins cut into their skins.

Babblers crawl up from--somewhere--to invade the crawlspaces or basements of buildings. They lurk in vents or even under beds.  From hidden places, the babblers whisper to their human victims.  Their utterances are jibberish--and that gives them their name.

Babblers tones seem to wheedling at first, then plaintive.  When this fails to achieve...whatever it is their after, They may attack in anger.  The cycle may take several nocturnal visitations over as much as a week.

Those that encounter babblers often develop a peculiar aphasia "the Jabber." How the jabber is transmitted is unclear. It may be through the babbler’s bite--certainly most who develop it are bitten--but it has been suggested that only close proximity to a babbler is necessary.  The mechanism is likewise unclear.

Those exposed get a saving throw. Failure means development of an aphasia within 2d6 hours based on the following table:

1-3: anomia - character is unable to remember names either of people or objects (except in general terms).
4-5: fluent aphasia - character is able to speak in a normal manner except that they use the wrong words, and perhaps even nonexistent words.
6-7: receptive aphasia - as above, except the character is also unable to make sense of the speech of others.
8-9: expressive aphasia - character has difficulty producing fluent speech. Words are pronounced with difficulty, in a halting manner, or with odd intonation.
10: global aphasia - The character is either unable to produce speech, repeats single words (perhaps in echo-like manner) or either occasionally shouts a single expletive.

Cure disease or the like will remove the illness, but otherwise it is permanent. in most cases (75% of the time) ability to read and write is preserved.

Babbler: #App.: 1-4, HD: 1, AC 6, Atk: 1 bite or claw (1d4), Special: stick to walls, chameleon skill, transmits "the jabber."

Warlord Wednesday: Dragon Skinner

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...

"Dragon Skinner"

Warlord #104 (April 1986)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Art by Ron Randall

Synopsis: Having reunited with Shakira, Morgan fills her (and the new reader) in on the aging curse that is afflicting his daughter Jennifer and on his quest to find the wizard that he hopes can save her.  Hearing a ruckus, the two go to investigate and find a bunch of guys shooting an orange allosaurus with a ballista.

It seems there’s a market for “dragon” skins as there’s “nothin’ them Kambuka scribes like better than to sheathe their scrolls in supple young dragon skins.”  Sounds vaguely naughty, doesn't it?  Well, Shakira doesn't like it:

One of them runs at her with an axe, but we don’t get to see her swordswomanship as Morgan intervenes with his pistol. After Morgan declines to sell his gun to the leader of the skinners, they slink off with the kills they have.

Morgan’s worried the baby allosaurs will die without their mother, but Shakira clues him on carnosaur parental practices and suggests the father will be a long soon to take care of them.

Meanwhile in Bakwele, Mariah and Machiste (disguised in priestly cloaks) book passage on a ship. The shipmaster, however, catches sight of Machiste’s unpriest-like mace-hand.

Elsewhere, Shakira is taking a dip in a pond while Morgan watches and wonders at why she didn’t say anything about him removing her collar (which she just picked up and put back on).

Morgan’s not the only one watching. The skinners are hiding near by. They think they can get a “king’s ransom in the slave marts of Kalibas” for Shakira.  The skinners get the jump on our heroes and take Morgan’s gun.  They force Shakira to change into cat-form and put her in a little cage.  Then, they shoot Morgan in the head! It looks like a glancing shot, but Morgan is out.  They steal his sword, too and leave him for dead.

Meanwhile, in a mansion in Kiro, the conspirators receive grisly “proof” that Machiste and Mariah are dead: two partially decomposed cadavers pulled from the river.  The ferryman who brought them in receives a bag of coin for his trouble.  As he assures the conspirators he’ll never show his face in Kiro again,the two men nod and smile, knowingly.

Later, the man is celebrating his hoax he pulled off on the two.  He opens the bag to get coin for a prostitute--and instead gets a viper biting him on the neck!

Morgan awakens bereft of weapons.  He pulls the ballista missile from the allosaur carcass, figuring that’s better than nothing.  At that moment, the male in the breeding pair shows up.  Morgan rides away quickly while the beast’s attentions are on his offspring.  Unfortunately, he doesn't get far down the trail before the carnosaur catches up to him.

Morgan’s chased to the edge of the cliff with only the missile to defend himself. The cliff gives way beneath them and man and dinosaur fall--but Morgan’s able to catch a hanging branch. The dinosaur lives, but it will take him awhile to climb out.

In the camp of the skinners, two of the gang decide to steal Morgan’s gun from the sleeping leader. The leader is not as asleep as he seems. He blows the two away. Morgan hears the sound and rides up on them. He punches the guy out and takes the gun. The leader tries to save his miserable life by buying Morgan off with the allosaurus tooth he wears around his neck. Then, he hears a roar behind him.  

The daddy allosaur is here! Morgan turns to shoot it:
 

The dinosaur charges--right past Morgan. It snatches up the leader of the skinners in its jaws. Morgan frees Shakira from the cage. He’s worried the allosaurus will charge them next, but the beast doesn’t.  He just stands and watches the two humans leave. Shakira hypothesizes that the dinosaur understands they never meant him or his mate any harm.  Morgan is skeptical...

Things to Notice:

• Again we see dinosaurs in the most prevalent Skartarian shade: orange.
• Since when does Shakira wear or use a sword?
• Apparently prostitutes in Kiro wear almost 19th century style undergarments.

Where it Comes From:
The dragon skinners in this episode are clearly meant to evoke the buffalo hunters of the American Old West.

Typhoid Mary

“Typhoid Mary” is one of the names given to women (typically young, and in unassuming professions) who become avatars for ancient and dread eikones, spirits of plague and contagion. These spirits are too old to have a voice of their own, and only the most deranged and saddest of cultists ever engage in their worship, but through a Typhoid Mary they still can let their presence be know.

Typically an avatar-to-be contracts some sort of dire infectious disease herself but for reasons unknown doesn't die.  The plague spirits transform her to a carrier instead. The illness that created her is not the only one a Typhoid Mary may spread; Through her life she may acquire more infections over time.

At the start, most Typhoid Marys are victims, as well.  Over time, the ancient whispers of the plague spirits and the horror of their existence takes its toll on their minds. They often become either willing accomplices or insane in their denial of truth of their existence.

Typhoid Marys are typically normal women other their ability to cause contagion (as per the spell with save at -2, except that a Mary need not touch someone to spread the contagion. If she wishes it, close proximity for a short time is enough.) and perhaps unusually hard to kill. An avatar who has fully embraced her role might exhibit healing, resistances, and immunities similar to a vampire.