Warlord Wednesday: Vale of the Snowmen

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...

"Vale of the Snowmen"

Warlord #120 (August 1987)

Written by Michael Fleisher;  Pencils by Art Thibert; Inks by Pablo Marcos

Synopsis: Redmond (the CIA agent that came all the way to Skartaris just to prove Morgan was a commie spy) wound up in one of Skartaris’s icy valleys after his fall at the end of last issue. Succumbing to the cold, he falls face down into the snow. A group of yeti-ish guys come to his rescue.

Down in ol’ Castle Kraken Lake, Morgan is fighting his way through the balding, ponytail-wearing (actually they’re probably going for a samurai thing) kraken assassins. The whole time he’s thinking about what he overheard: that Machiste hired them to come after him. He doesn’t buy. He grabs one of the kraken guys and makes his escape out a window. The guy tells him they’ll never make it through the krakens, but Morgan figures the little whistles the guys wear do something.

Meanwhile, Jennifer is awakened by a searing, pervasive emanation of evil. She casts a spell to transport her to it’s source:

Jennifer throws up a magical shield, but Kara’s superhuman strength is rapidly wearing her down. Jennifer channels her magic into breaking the demon’s hold on Kara. She manages to do it, but while they’re busy the demon disappears.

Morgan gets back to Shamballah and finds it under attack by the forces of Kiro. In the midst of battle, Morgan does some more thinking. While Machiste may be angry with him, breaking his alliance with Shamballah would harm his city and his people. it doesn’t make sense.

Morgan may not have much time to figure it all out. The raiders are repulsed, but now the Shamballans are clamoring for war. How long will Morgan be able to hold their anger back?

Redmond wakes up in the high tech city of the yetis. They speak to him telepathically and tell him they are the descendants of an Atlantean colony. Some weird magic in this valley transformed their ancestors into hairy snowmen. They've recently discovered an element that will return them to human form, but they won’t use it until they've purified enough for all. Redmond thinks that’s all pretty unfortunate--until he sees the yeti hairs start sprouting on his own arms!

In Kiro, Machiste receives a report that Kiro’s outlands are being harried by raiders flying the Warlord’s banner. His ministers want war with Shamballah, but Machiste is unwilling to do so yet. The ministers are surprise to see Shamballah’s Queen Tara, cooling her feet in a fountain in the palace’s gardens. They’d be even more surprised if they knew she was a Vashek assassin using alien technology to disguise herself as the Shamballan Queen. The real Tara is locked away in a dungeon at that moment.

In another plane of existence, Desaad, Torturer of Apokolips, watches the machinations of his protege Y’Smalla with pleasure. Desaad has more plans for Skartaris, right now though, he’s got the New God Lightray to torture.

Things to Notice:

• Morgan's outfit seems somewhat different from last issue.
• The New Gods are back in Skartaris.

Where it Comes From:
The snowmen in this issue resemble the snowbeast from issue #9, but presumably there isn't any evidence of a relationship between the two (other than the first story probably inspired the latter).

The Slavers

Slavers (yssgalahl is an approximate rendering of their autonym) are aquatic sophonts who look vaguely like 4 m long mucus-covered catfish with tentacles. The Slavers are a psionic species who use their abilities to stun prey in their native oceans. They had never developed more than the most rudimentary tool use, until human explorers fell prey to their attacks. Off world organisms lacked the psionic resistance of native fauna; the explorers were mentally dominated rather than merely stunned.

The Slavers had acquired space travel.

Only the sheer size of galactic civilization, their aquatic nature, and the resistance of other psi-capable species kept them from establishing a vast empire. Instead, they resorted to becoming slave traders. They keep those they need to serve them on their world and in their ships and sell the rest on the galactic market. There are places where “naturally” grown sophonts are preferable to bioroids or robots. The Slavers are the primary suppliers of Minga slave women.

No. Appearing:1-4
AC: 4
Hit Dice: 8
Saving Throw: 11
Attack Bonus: +8
Damage: 4 tentacles (1d6 + slime)
Movement: 10’/60'
Skill Bonus: +1
Morale: 9

The slime coating the Slaver’s tentacles is a paralytic to life native to its world, but cause skin changes to humans which lead to 1d4 damage each interval the affected isn’t kept cool and damp (Toxicity 8, Virulence 3, Interval 5 minutes). Slavers can create realistic sensory experiences in the minds of biologic sapients if they fail of Mental Effect saving throw. The Slaver’s also possess an ability similar to Overpowering Will, which they can use 3 times a day. The power can be used on any single individual within 9 meters. If a being is dominated, they will serve the Slaver until some external force breaks the control. If the enslaved individual is separated from the Slaver by more than a kilometer, a new saving throw roll is made every day.

Never Trust the S'ta Zoku

The star folk or s’ta zoku are a nomadic, starfaring human culture found throughout the known galaxy. While star folk of all ages presumably exist, the ones most frequently encountered as visitors to other societies are in their teens twenties (or wear bodies that appear as such), so they’re sometimes called “star children.”

The star folk live in space, traveling between worlds in caravans of their living starships. They declare “festivals” on planets where they make landfall--sharing eclectic, primitivist music, non-fabricated wares, psychedelic drugs, and xenophilic sexual encounters. In passing, they impart facets of their quasi-religious philosophy (a mishmash of various aspects of ancient mysticism memes) that embraces the seemingly conflicting elements of radical individualism and universal interconnectedness. 

They also play practical jokes and minor confidence games meant as performance art or rituals on authority figures and those they consider too narrow-minded. They use no currency, so either barter for goods and services or rely on gratuity. Neither of these traits have endeared them to more controlled societies.

Despite their preference for “natural” or pre-nanofaber clothes and items, the s’ta zoku seems to have access to advanced technology. Some engage in radical body-shaping, modifying their baseline form or changing their sex on a temporary basis. Self-organized groups of star folk youths share box-like devices that may contain picotechnology and be the product of a long dead culture. The star folk have formed something of a “cargo cult” around them.  

The boxes are thought to be artificial intelligences. They are attuned to the mental state of their associated groups; they emit sounds and their surfaces display changing color patterns that act to reinforce group cohesion and mental well-being. Star folk groups seldom make significant decisions without consulting these devices.

In Space, No One Can Hear You Index

As an excuse for a lazy blog post, I thought I'd put all of my recent science fiction posts from the as yet unnamed setting in one place. If you missed any of them the first time, they'll be new to you:

A pictorial overview of a bit of galactic history. You have to know your Radiant Polity form your Archaic Oikumene!
Deshret: A desert planet where tomb-robbers steal digital souls.
Necromancers: Undead travelers trying to find the remnant of their ancient species and resurrect them.
The Phantasists: On a floating city, they'll sale you neurochemical dreams.
The Pharesmid Syndicate: A criminal organization where all the members are one guy.
The Vokun Empire: A brief look at these bad guys and their primary subservient species.
The Zao Pirates: and their shrouded asteroid homebase.
Zyanthion: A world where the people have a reputation economy and duel to protect their honor.

In upcoming posts we should get to the ichthyoid and psionic Slavers, the Star Folk (space hippies),  the Apotheosis Labyrinth, more on the species of the Vokun Empire, space amazons (of course), a pleasure planet, and maybe the weird (consensus) wizard-mind of Smaragdoz.

The Vokun Empire

In the far future, part of the Milky Galaxy is controlled by the decadent Vokun Empire. More to come on them later, but here’s an introduction to the vokun and their foederati. The information here comes from fragmentary reports of questionable accuracy. Any errors will corrected in future posts.

The vokun are once-fierce conquerors in decline. As vokun age, they become progressively more obese until they are immobile without use of their walker conveyances. The elder vokun direct the younger in administration of the empire, but increasingly they’re concerned only with political maneuvering and decadent games.

The vokun have a distrust of disembodied minds, so they employ “humanoid computers” in the form of ibglibishpan savants. Their neural structure and training makes them logical, dispassionate--and ideal accountants, administrators, and archivists. Some are trained in reading the emotions of other humanoids, while the ibglibdishpan themselves always have serene expressions. Their mental structure does make them prone to “halting states” and other sorts of madness.

The kuath are the fanatically conditioned shock troops of the empire. They are seldom seen outside of their 2.5 m tall bio-armor suits, but they are humanoids rarely older than their teens. The humanoids have a symbiotic relationship with ocean-dwelling god monsters they call the Dragon Mothers, who supply their biotechnology and battle drugs. The Dragon Mothers gave the service of the kuath to the vokun in exchange for sparing their world from bombardment with mass drivers.

The engineers of the empire are a humanoid species with crustacean like characteristics, including metallic carapace. All the engineers have cybernetic enhancements and host groups of nanites in their bodies.

Warlord Wednesday: Betrayal

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...

"Betrayal"

Warlord #119 (July 1987)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Art by Ron Randall

Synopsis: Morgan is in the palace in Shamballah in cape and purple shirt, worrying about where his wife might be. His worrying is cut short by would-be assassins with blue stars on their faces and green outfits with streamers. Just another day in Skartaris.

While Morgan’s dealing with the assassins, Machiste’s beating up a couple of guys in an arena. The gladiators comment on the ferocity their king has displayed since coming back from Shamballah. Machiste asserts the reason for his new vigor is his new lady:

Morgan’s old lady--Tara!

In New Atlantis, Kara (aka Power Girl) has found the tomb of her grandfather, Arion. Entering the tomb, she finds a room with a computer and a gem on a pedestal. She sits down at the computer console, but then feels strangely drawn to the gem. She feels compelled to shoot it with her heat vision. It shatters--and trouble emerges:

Meanwhile, Redmond’s also having a tough time. He finally reaches a Skartarian village, but gets chased out of town after he steals a piece of fruit. He climbs a cliff face to escape his pursuers, but them winds up falling.

Morgan follows one of the escaping assassins, to a lake with a fortress on a small island at its center. He plans to swim behind on of their coracles so they’ll think it slipped loose accidentally. but he’s attacked by a purple giant squid. It drags him beneath the surface, but he’s able to stab it in the eye and escape to the shore of the island.

Morgan sneaks into the fortress and overhears a startlingly conversation: this organization known as the Kraken Pentacle was apparently sent after him by the King of Kiro--his old friend, Machiste! Morgan is surprised by one of the assassins who discovered him in hiding. The two fight, and break through the floor, falling into the ceremonial chamber.

In Kiro, Machiste and Tara are attacked by assassin’s identically dressed to the one’s that went after Morgan. The assassin’s claim they have been sent by the Warlord. Machiste and Tara defeat them, but Machiste lets one live so that the man can return to Morgan (if he’s really the one who hired them) and tell him he’s gone to far.

Later, Tara descends into a dungeon beneath the castle where a prisoner is chained to wall. Tara pulls a device from beneath her cloak. She bathed in energy, then her true identity is revealed:

Things to Notice:

• Morgan sports a new outfit this issue. Machiste is the only one of the principles who has gotten new togs.
• Why hasn't anyone else in the castle noticed Tara chained in the basement?

Where it Comes From:
The demon inside the gem is reminiscent of the Evil One and is jewel in previous issues.

A Book Bundle Giveaway

The Happy Whisk, long-suffering (I kid--probably) spouse of Tim, the lord of Gothridge Manor is having a book bundle giveaway in honor of her 444 post. Check it out here. It includes the new issue of Tim's 'zine, The Manor.

One Man Mob

The Pharesmid Syndicate is criminal organization centered on the planet Smaragdoz. The members of the group are all bio-clones or mind copies of their founder, Smaragdine terrorist Uln Pharesm. Pharesm was a mole within the development group in the beta phase of the Smaragdine noospheric Consensus. With his access to the computing power of the noosphere, he was able to generate several copies of his mind, and abscond with governmental funds. Pharesm betrayed the members of his terrorist cell, keeping the money for himself, and hijacking their bodies with his copies. With his new mind-confederates, he embarked on a criminal enterprise that continues to this day.

Pharesmids all wear facial tattoos, though they may disguise them in the course of their criminal operations. Their progenitor has augmented his brain to give himself limited psi abilities, and it may be that some lieutenants have similar enhancements.

PHARESMID SYNDICATE
Attributes: Force 3, Cunning 6, Wealth 5
Hit Points: 29
Assets: Cyberninjas/Cunning 3, Smugglers/Cunning 1, Thugs/Force 1, Laboratory/Wealth 3

Treasure from the Desert

Deshret is a desert world, terraformed in a previous age, but now slowly sliding back into uninhabitability. Its forbidding red sands would have long ago been abandoned to its hostile indigenes and desert monsters, if it weren't for the treasure buried beneath its shifting dunes.

During the Archaic Oecumene, the desert world was the location of a floating metropolis. The city did a thriving business in the preparation and storage of uploaded mind copies in their secure databanks (referred to as “tombs”) buried beneath the planet’s surface. The Great Collapse lead to the city literally disintegrating to dust under assault by rogue disassembler swarms. The stored data facilities were left unguarded and ripe for tomb-robbers.

Shortly after the incorporation of the Radiant Polity, haphazard thievery on Deshret coalesced into a business supporting a new society. The tall, jade-skinned, ectomorphic Ogüptans controlled the exploitation of the past from their capital, the spaceport Moph. Some are sandminers, sifting the red dust for fragments of code and the rare whole artifact left from the Great Collapse. Others are tomb-robbers, wresting the minds of the long dead to sell into slavery, to toil in the infospheres of today. 

Tomb-robbing isn’t without risk. The data is secure, and getting at it often requires overcoming deadly physical and digital intrusion countermeasures. Perhaps even worse, strife around the Great Collapse or soon after, left the desert full of spirits and devils. Wild nanites haunt the wastes: malicious djinn and  body-thief dybbuks. Then there are the masked desert tribes, murderously resentful of intruders into their sacred places.

Despite these risks, there is no shortage of people willing to brave them for a chance at quick money.

Swords & Celebrity

The red-skinned humanoids of Zyanthion are known throughout the galaxy for their pursuit of pleasure and their peculiar, anarchic society. Popular media depicts them as passionate to a fault; as likely to be heedlessly pursuing a new romantic conquest as to be fighting a duel with archaic (but deadly) graphene-edged rapiers--and they do either in a very public way.

To visitors from other cultures, Zyann seem obsessed with status and celebrity. Virtually all their activities are public recorded in their noosphere [planet-wide internet and grid]. They live or die socially by the praise or disapproval they receive for their actions. Zyanthion operates on a reputation economy. There is no money; goods and services are given to others in hopes of enhancing one’s own prestige. This “currency” (awarded and tracked in the noosphere) is known as éclat. Zyann who have accumulated high éclat (whether from artistry, craftsmanship, bravery, or skill as a lover) can become a powerful in their society, able to occupy manors and estates, and assume self-chosen titles of nobility--as long as their éclat remains sufficiently high.

Current fashion is important to Zyann in all facets of their society. Religions and belief systems appear, flourish, and fall from favor almost as quickly as clothing fads. Only a few Zyann have cultivated the “right” sort of name to avoid having to chase styles to maintain their position.

Because of the supremacy of reputation, Zyann honor is easily offended. Off-world visitors can easily find themselves challenged to a duel. Consultation of a lawyer of at least moderate éclat is advised in such situations, as there are face-saving ways of avoiding the deadly art of Zyann swordsmanship in many cases.  Of course, visitors have to be mindful of their own graciously gifted éclat in such situations.

Inner City Blues

Weird Adventures presents the City and it’s world in the year 5888, an era of automobiles, machine guns, and jazz.  Of course, that’s not the only age when there’s adventure to be had:

About thirty-five years in the future, the City is again seeing hard times. A  grinding war continues with Red Lemuria. Political scandal and public corruption has eroded trust in institutions. The aging subway trains are covered with graffiti. Solace is full of abandoned buildings, crime, drugs, and poverty. The Circus, once the brightly lit crossroads of the world, is now the home of sleazy grindhouses and a haven for pimps, hookers, and drug pushers.

The reputation of thaumaturgy has suffered just like other traditional institutions. Murderous gurus, scandals involving sex rituals, and scam artists have led to the thaumaturgic arts being viewed unsavory and dangerous by the masses, and old-fashion and hokey by the counter-culture.

There are still adventurers, though--and more than ever they're quasi-outlaws sticking it to the Fat Cats and the Establishment. Most of the dungeons have been cleaned out, but there are plenty of treasures in the hands of the wealthy. And there are always monsters--just now some of them sit in positions of power.

Foes: thrill-kill cult gurus, street gangs, the decadent wealthy with secrets to hide, corrupt cops and politicians, the Hell Syndicate.

Media Inspirations: Film/TV: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Enter the Dragon, Kolchak: the Night-Stalker, Shaft, Sugar Hill (1974), To The Devil...A Daughter, The Warriors, Vanishing Point; Books: the works of Dennis Wheatley and Stephen King, the Doctor Orient novels, the Destroyer novels, exploitive seventies nonfiction about witches and the occult; Comic Books: Night Force, Swamp Thing, Vampire Tales and any of Marvel’s other black and white magazines; Music: Jimmy Page’s unused soundtrack for the film Lucifer Rising. The Shaft and Truck Turner soundtracks by Isaac Hayes, Superfly soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield;  any of Goblin’s music from Argento’s films.

Warlord Wednesday: The Times (and Costumes) Are A-Changin'

Let's take a break this week from the adventures of Morgan and the gang, and consider the changes that have come in the visual depictions of The Warlord's cast. Our canary in the fashion coal mine will be Mariah Romanova, Russian fencing champion and archaelogist. Mariah isn't in Skartaris long before she acquires a standard Skartarian outfit:

As impractical as it is improbable, Mariah's outfit nevertheless marks her as a hero: bit players in the saga tend to have more standard Conan comic attire. Note the Farrah Fawcett feathered hair and the colored eye patches that were sported by several comic characters in the era.

As the years go by, Mariah's hair changes a little bit--and when Ron Randall takes over, her costume gets a bit skimpier. Then after the "Morgan's Quest" saga, Randall gets into a bit of costume experimentation:

Here we see what must be Mariah's "lounging about the castle" outfit. (This is an idea with precedent: Tara and Morgan got them in previous issues.) It's a pretty 70s design despite the era; it recalls the duds of DC's first Starfire. Not that she's got kind of 80s hair, though, and the eye makeup has expanded beyond the old raccoon eyes look.

When next Randall has her back in her standard outfit, it's been subtly (or maybe not so subtly) altered. It's just as revealing, but more a more complicated design. She's now sporting hair and a headband borrowed from some aerobics instructor. Her eye makeup is asymmetric has gotten all Jem and the Holograms (which started around this same time--this stuff was just the zeitgeist).

What's next for Mariah?  Come back next Wednesday and find out.

Galactic History with Pictures

It's commonly accepted that most of the galaxy's sophonts are either descendants or creations of humanity who came into being on the fabled world of Earth. The location of this ur-world of the humanoid phyle is lost. 

The original civilization of humanity collapsed (perhaps multiple times) or perhaps it ascended. Whether the end was glorious or tragic, the true history of these times is only fragmented legend.

The Archaics rose with the aide of knowledge salvaged ruins of the past. They built crystalline cities that floated in the air, and connected the noospheres of their worlds with superluminal relays via wormwholes.  

Something happened. There was a Great Collapse and galactic civilization fractured into individual worlds, and some of them slid back into savagery.

The Radiant Polity, one of the successor states to the Archaic Oikumene, was torn asunder by conflict between toxic memes. The Instrumentality of the current age was born out of this struggle.

The planet Phobetor is home to monsters: Bandersnatches, kalidahs, cateblopases, and crocotta are among the deadly bio-art horrors released onto the world's surface by the artists living in the dilapiated floating city above it. This artists' colony became the Phantasists of today.

The Zao Corsairs

The Zao are an infamous group of space pirates. Their brazen crimes and theatrical flair have made them a favorite as villains and anti-heroes in sims and other popular entertainments. The truth is far from glamorous: the Zao are killers who capture ships, loot them, and hold their passengers for ransom or sell them into slavery--sometimes selling their bodies separately from their uploaded minds.

The Zao are a multi-bioform (perhaps even multi-species) association, but the original founding group was composed of perhaps a few hundred former prisoners of the Radiant Polity. As the polity was torn apart by meme wars, the prison asteroid Naraka was left understaffed.The prison was taken by a group of inmates (legend has it, after one of their rehabilitation programs was replaced by hackers with a sim mixing elements of various ancient adventure and crime narratives), and the asteroid has served as the pirates base of operations since. The asteroid is cloaked in a defensive dust that only allows authorized craft to pass unscathed.

Anyone may call themselves a Zao pirate, and some vessels operating under that title may have no connection to Naraka, but the actual Zao pirates react harshly to those “flying their flag” who don't obey their established codes governing the division of plunder, interactions between affiliate vessels, and the secrecy of their defense system keycodes.

No. Appearing:1-10

AC: 7

Saving Throw: 15+

Attack Bonus: +1

Damage: by weapon (1d8+1 monoblade, 2d6 void carbine)

Movement: 30'

Skill Bonus: +2

Morale: 9

The Zao have fondness for old-fashion appearing bladed weapons for close-quarters boarding, but are certainly not adverse to the use of ranged weaponry.

Science Fiction Inspirations

My appreciation for pulp science fiction is well known, but I haven’t recommended any non-pulp stuff in a while, so maybe it’s about time. These are not only good reads, but good gaming inspirations:

The Risen Empire and The Killing of Worlds by Scott Westerfield form a space opera duology about a struggle between two powers: an empire ruled by the immortal-after-death Risen and the Rix, cybernetic humans who worship planetary-size AIs. The opening battle is much more “hard science fiction” than anything in Star Wars or Star Trek--and all the more  fresh and inventive for it. The Rix, there abilities and goals, are much interesting than the Borg ever were, while filling a similar niche.

Diaspora by Greg Egan is less of an action narrative and not as immediately gameable, but has plenty of interesting elements. In the far future, when the solar system is inhabited by post-humans, a cosmic catastrophe endangers all life. The digital citizens of one polis hatch a plan to escape--to higher order dimensions! Probably the most gameable bits here are the different clades of post-humanity and their societies: the digital polis citizens, the robotic gleisners, the devolved dream-apes.

The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi sits between these two. It’s got a bit of Diaspora’s heavy science flights of fancy and post-human setting, but more of the Succession duology’s action and conflict. Jean le Flambleur, the greatest thief in the solar system, is busted out of prison by an Oortian warrior and her intelligent ship. The Oortian’s master has a job for le Flambleur, but first the thief has to retreive his own memories from a moving city on Mars--and match wits with a young consulting detective to do so. The various societies of Rajaniemi’s future are exotic and the technologies presented are really evocative.
 

The Necromancers

They can sometimes be seen along the space ways and at port: black ships, sleek, angular and glinting like an obsidian blade. Their crews are small; often only the master of the vessel and his slave daemons or bioroids are aboard. They do not come to trade or to meet other species. These dead men, these Necromancers, have other concerns.

Tall and cadaverous, the Necromancers are of a near human bioform. They appear to be lacking in biologic processes--except perhaps decay, slowed by the black nanosuits they wear. Though they don’t live in the usual sense, they do use energy; nanites infuse their tissues, reanimating them. But the bodies break down, after centuries--or millennia perhaps. Then their intelligences, held in palm-sized scarabae, can attach themselves to the nervous system of a new host.

There are a lot of stories told about the Necromancers: that they have magical powers or that they’re ultraterrestrials or qlippothic entities from a previous universe. The most credible theory holds they are the guardians of an ancient culture: A culture which committed mass suicide to avoid some sort of cataclysm, with a plan to resurrect themselves in a future time. Their bodies were interred in tomb worlds and their minds uploaded and conveyed through a wormwhole to a secure data underworld. The Necromancers were their people's psychopomps and were to be their resurrectors.

Something went wrong. The underworld was lost. The Necromancers search for them still, dealing with any being that might be able to help them--and destroying any that stand in their way.

AC: 3 or better

No. Appearing: 1-2
Hit Dice: 5 
Movement: 20'
Saving Throw: 13
Attack Bonus:  +7
Damage: 2d8 energy weapon or better
Morale: 10
Skill Bonus: +4

Warlord Wednesday: Of Captives and Cannibals...

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...

"Of Captives and Cannibals... Scavengers and Kings"

Warlord #118 (June 1987)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Art by Ron Randall

Synopsis: The ship taking the blonde stranger to New Atlantis is attacked by a strange scorpion-looking vehicle. The stranger flies from the ship, blocks stinger blasts with her bare hands, and starts punching the craft open, The pilot distracts her by blasting the ship in half.

The stranger flies back the ship. Holding the halves together, she carries it to a nearby island. There the crew can make repairs, but it looks like the stranger will be flying to New Atlantis.

In Shamballah, Morgan is saddling his horse to ride out looking for Tara. The Queen for her part is on her way back, presumably, just stopping to water her horse. That’s when the former Vathek Y’Smalla makes her move:

Using Apokolipsian illusions, she gets the drop on Tara and knocks her out.

Morgan comes across a woman being attack by an weird, orange, insect monster. He dispatches it in his usual way, but the girl--far from thanking him--tells him to stay away, then she faints. Puzzled, Morgan picks her up to carry her to a nearby town.

Morgan brings the girl into an inn. He doesn't get the welcome he expected:

Desaad’s smear campaign has turned the townsfolk against him. He has no choice but to fight them. Luckily, a blind man who was tortured by Desaad (then freed by the Warlord) shows up to vouch for him.

Elsewhere, Redmond is in the hand of tribesmen about to sacrifice him in the flaming maw of their idol. He manages to get free, and lobs a couple of grenades at them. In the chaos the follows, Redmond retrieves his and makes his escape.

In Shamballah, Jennifer is practicing to get her magical mojo back. She’s interrupted by Mariah, who has come to tell her goodbye. Mariah feels guilt about how her actions have made everyone else miserable, and she’s leaving:

The blonde stranger has reached New Atlantis and finds it deserted. Her thoughts reveal her to me the superheroine known as Power Girl. She used to believe she was Superman’s cousin, but now she knows herself to be the granddaughter of Arion, Lord of Atlantis. She doesn’t plan to leave New Atlantis until she finds out more about her parents and grandparents.

A bit later, Morgan rides back into Shamballah. He’s greeted by an angry Machiste who suckerpunches him. Machiste is angry about Morgan’s relationship with Mariah. He declares their friendship over and rides off.

Things to Notice:

• This issue marks the first time a DC Universe superhero has appeared in Skartaris.
• Mariah, Morgan and Jennifer are back in their old costumes (though Mariah still sports her new eye make-up).

Where it Comes From:
This issue marks the beginning of a series of retcons over decades to the origin of Power Girl. When Power Girl first appeared in All Star Comics #58 (1976) she was Kara Zor-L, Kryptonian cousin--essentially the Earth-2 version of Supergirl. Post-Crisis there was no Earth-2, and post John Byrne's Man of Steel Superman reboot, Superman was the last survivor of Krypton.

Power Girl needed a new origin. In Secret Origins vol 2 #11, she got one: She was now the descendant of the Atlantean sorcerer Arion, and she had been in suspended animation for a long time.

Selling Dreams

The Phantasists are renown throughout the galaxy as dream merchants. No purveyors of mere sims or other mass produced neural trickery, the Phantasists use ancient arts to craft neurochemical mixtures that deliver an individualized, specific, and vivid oneiric experience.

The Phantasists inhabit the sky city of Eidolon (believed to be a folly constructed by a prelapsarian plutocrat), floating above an environmentally damaged world populated by nightmare horrors. They generally appear as baseline humanoids with pale complexions and blue eyes, though they are a creative people and sometimes wear other more varied bodies. Phantasist society is a syndicate subdivided by guild and class. At least when dealing with the public, all Phantasists affect an air of ancient nobility. Though their own official history is perhaps purposefully obscure on their origins, historians believe the Phantasists are descended from an artists’ colony that took up residence in the city during the age of decline before the Great Collapse.

Phantasists have made extensive study of dreams. Their technicians (or “oneironauts” in their advertising copy) delve into simulations constructed from centuries of dream log data gathered in their sleep laboratories from a myriad of sophonts. Comparing the subjective experience with real-time neurologic data they have been able to isolate dream elements and experiences. All this knowledge goes into the synthesis of their oneiric neuronanochemical cocktails for high paying clientele.

Phantasists don’t seek to create crude and causality-bound simulations of physical reality; Their aim is the crafting of experiences with the particular sensation of a dream. There are rumored to be rogue oneirochemists who are willing to create jamais vu traps and  unwaking nightmares for special clients, but the Phantasists vigorously deny that any of their number would participate in those practices.

[For Brutorz Bill who's been wanting new science fiction material. More to come. ]

How Do You Like Your Sci-Fi?

My recent science fiction posts in multiple settings (Star Trek, Pulp Space, Talislantan Space) has got me thinking about the different levels of "hardness" in science fiction. (A topic that TV Tropes--unsurprisingly--has some thoughts on). This scale is a bit granular and more detailed (and perhaps a bit more judgey). Here's my sort of summary of the basics of both of these:

Hard: So, on one end we've got fairly plausible stuff that mostly extrapolates on current technology. This includes stuff like William Gibson's Sprawl series and the novels of Greg Egan (from the near future mystery Quarantine to the far future Diaspora). A game example is this category would be somethig like GURPS Transhuman Space.

Medium: Getting a little more fantastic, we arrive in the real of a lot of TV shows and computer games. One end of this pretty much only needs you to believe in FTL and artificial gravity but is otherwise pretty hard. Powerful but plausible nanotech might fall here, too (like in John C. Wright's Golden Age triology). The fewer impossible things you're asked to believe (and the better rationalized the ones you are asked to believe in are), the harder it is. The middle of this group adds in something like psionics (Traveller gets in here, and a lot of science fiction novels, like Dune and Hyperion). The softer end throws in a lot of too-human aliens and "pure energy" beings (Babylon 5, most Star Trek).

Soft: Here lies fantasy but with a science fiction veneer and context. Some Star Trek (the animated series, particularly) comes in here, and Farscape. This is also the domain of Star Wars. Simon R. Green's Deathstalker cycle turns up here, too.

Ultra-Soft: Some Star Wars tie-ins in other media come in here, as do things that include magic (or similar fantastic elements} mixed in with an otherwise soft sci-fi universe: This would include superhero sci-fi properties (the Legion of Super-Heroes and Guardians of the Galaxy) and comic book epic sci-fi (what might also be thought of as Heavy Metal sci-fi) like Dreadstar, The Incal, and The Metabarons. It's possible it stops beings science fiction on the mushiest end of this catgory and just becomes "fantasy."

So what consistency of sci-fi is your favorite--particularly in regard to rpgs?

Talislantan Space: In the Expanse

The Zaran Expanse is a region of decimated star systems and damaged worlds, the epicenter of the devastation of the Great Disaster. The area gets its name from the ancient Zaran Empire, though how much of the territory the empire actually controlled is a matter of debate. Traversing through and residing in the Expanse are a mix of species from all over the galaxy:

A Nagra bounty hunter draws on his quarry. The Nagra's "spirit tracking" ability allows them to trace the psychic ripples of their prey's passing, even across space.

A group of Zandir fencers perform an exhibition bout.

Two Batrean females run a confidence game.

A rare glimpse of a Muse Empath outside the Seven Worlds Alliance.