Chronology of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Unlike the comic book version of the Marvel Universe with its sliding timeline in order to keep characters perpetually young, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has to employ real live actors and has no reason not to tie things to real dates since the actors are just going to get old anyway.  The movies don't pin themselves down so much on when the actual films take place (or their references are contradictory), but we do know quite a bit about the events before them:

Tony Stark was born on May 29, 1970.

Hank Pym resigns from SHIELD in 1989.

Howard and Maria Stark are assassinated by the Winter Soldier on December 16 1991.

Anyway, check out these timelines here and here.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Battle for Earth (part 2)

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: The Battle for Earth (1980) (part 2)
(Dutch: De Strijd om de Aarde)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

Under Storm' guidance and with the work of Mordegai and his people, the shelter soon has power for the first time in centuries. Balder, though, is jealous of the favor Mordegai is showing Storm, so he decides to switch sides. He breaks the Azurians free and helps them get back to their craft. This is how they show their gratitude:

Still alive, Balder stumbles back and tells Mordegai and Storm what he has done. Storm believes they'll be back in force soon--and he's right. A squadron of Azurian ships are sooner approaching the shelter. The Supervisor is so eager to get revenge on Storm he's come in person.

The shelter is not as defenseless as the Azurians believe. Storm directs their magnetic ray weapons to be fired. The Azurian fighters are pulled down to crash against the mountain. The people of the shelter engage the survuving Azurian floating down on parachutes. The attackers are routed; the survivors run into the forest.

In an effort to contain Storm and his forces, the Azurians come out of hiding and occupy towns and villages surrounding the mountain. They deal ruthless with the local populations, but many of the townsfolk escape and flee to the shelter in the mountain for safety.

Storm realizes it's now all out war. He and Ember lead an army out of the mountain--but they are unaware that the Supervisor knows there plans, having planted spies among the refugees. Still, as they march, more and more troops join Storm's army to help take back the planet.

The Supervisor directs General Solon to take his elite squadron and "bomb the army back to the Stone Age." Solon expresses reservations about another secret weapon, but the Supervisor isn't having it. His squadron flies out and finds where Storm and his troops have pitched camp at nightfall.

The human army appears defenseless. Solon begins to think this will be easy, but then Storm activates an ancient device he's brought with them:

As if they were all struck by lightning the ships fall from the sky. Solon manages to survive by bringing his ship down in something approximating a landing. His only thought is avenging his men. He stumbles into the human camp:

TO BE CONTINUED

The Hidden Country Setting

A significant number of works of fantasy take place in some sort of lost or hidden realm within the real world: Oz (at times), Neverwhere, Pellucidar, the Savage Land, Fraggle Rock, Hogwarts, and some versions of fairyland are all around here somewhere. This sort of setting doesn't seem to have been often used in fantasy rpgs, at least outside of modern/urban fantasy.

I suppose their are reasons for this. The Medieval(ish) nature of most fantasy gaming suggests a historical(ish) setting. The scales many settings inhabit would preclude them being tucked away in some corner. Perhaps there's also a fear with the modern world close by it would be too easy for it to intrude.

These seem to me to be only relative contraindications. Most gamers (at least of the old school variety) are comfortable with plenty of science fictional or science fantasy elements that violate the pseudohistorical milieu  The scale may be sort of a problem (though Burroughs never set that stop him in Tarzan's Africa and a Hollow Earth could have plenty of space) and a smaller scale setting isn't necessarily a bad thing.

This sort of setting opens up some new elements: Lost-like underground bases complete with enigmatic video instructions, modern world epherma as treasure, secret societies working in both "worlds." Pretty interesting stuff, I think, with a lot of potential.

Civil War

Captain America: Civil War (or as my friend Matt Penn insists it must be called "The War of Superhero Aggression") manages to transmogrify the 2006 crossover even that made me virtually stop reading Marvel into an entertaining film, though it is inferior to its predecessor, Winter Soldier.

Civil War plays with interesting thematic elements: individual freedom vs. control, dealing with consequences of well-intended acts, the destructiveness of vengeance, Iron Man vs. Captain America (ok, not a theme)--but mostly it's about superheroes wailing on each other, and it doesn't think a whole lot about what it has to do to get there. So we get an unelected monarchy lecturing the Avengers about accountability after a handful of civilians die when the Avengers prevent the release of a toxin into the city of Lagos that would have killed who knows how many, and the U.S. secretary of state rushes headlong into putting American superheroes (several of whom were super-secret agents of the U.S. government just a film ago) into the hands some sort of UN committee.

Now, even if all that can be made since of with the pat "the Marvel Universe is different from our own," we also get former soldier Captain America being the staunch "we can't be under someone else's control!" guy, which for most of the translates as "my friends shouldn't have to face consequences for their actions!" The film has to have those who oppose him behave stupidly and heavy-handedly to make his position justified.

The villain in the film seems to have accounted for all these things, because his plan hinges entirely on people performing very specific actions that there's no way of knowing they would do. He and Batman vs. Superman's Lex Luthor must have take the same super-villain prognostication classes.

All this, though, is in service of a superhero punch 'em up, which is a sight to behold. We get all of Marvel's crew and sees some great tricks pulled out including one big reveal I won't spoil, but also the classic bit of Ant-Man riding Hawkeye's arrow. This battle is probably the best done multiple characters battle in a supers film-- it beats any of the X-men films in that regard, I think.

We also get the intros of Black Panther and Spider-Man. I'm ready for that Black Panther film now. This Spider-Man is probably my 3rd favorite cinematic portrayal (though I have no doubt there are many places where Marvel Cinematic Universe adherents are proclaiming he's finally "done right" now that he's in the "Universe.") but I don't blame the actor as much as the writing and the use he's put to in the film.

All in all, it's a solid superhero film. I'd put it above Age of Ultron.

Projects Update

It's been a while since I outlined where my current rpg projects stand. This will just focus on the bigger ones (the one's I've discussed here; I always have a few slow-burn, "for the future" things, as well.) First off, let me say there's been a bit of a global delay as I got married the end of last month and I'm now in the midst of integrating houses, so progress will be slower for a bit. Anyway, let's run the list:

Strange Stars OSR: First (and hopefully the only major) round of edits/suggestions are on hand, and I've begun responding to them. All the art has been done.

Mortzengersturm, the Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak: Also has gone through first round of edits and art is in process. I'll be running this in Juna at NTRPGCon.

Cloud Castle of Azurth: Still in the writing process. On a little bit of a hiatus to get one of the other projects off the table.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Battle for Earth

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: The Battle for Earth (1980)
(Dutch: De Strijd om de Aarde)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

Leaving their doomed world, the Azurians set about conquering planets throughout the galaxy. One of those worlds was Earth. They wiped the minds of the conquered survivors, destroying civilization and returning humanity to barbarism. They cultivated spies among the surviving humans to ensure their technological knowledge rose above a certain level.

When Storm arrived in their time and discovered what they had done, it had the potential to disrupt their plans. They had no choice but to hunt him down and destroy him. So far, that's proved difficult. Despite their advanced sensors, they have been unable to locate Storm and Ember.

An Azurian patrol finds a hidden entrance in the wall of a ravine. They enter it and discover an ancient ruin where they're set upon by barbarians. Though they have superior weapons, they're overwhelmed by the human's numbers.

The captive Azurians are taken to an audience chamber to the human's leader, Mordegai. The blue men confirm the story of their other prisoner's: Storm and Ember, by calling out Storm by name. The warrior, Balder, still isn't convinced they shouldn't kill Storm. He hasn't trusted the two strangers since they found them at the entrance to their cave. He doesn't believe Storm's story that their cave is actually a bomb shelter built to protect human's against the Azurian onslaught.

Mordegai has had enough of Balder's lip and sends him away. Mordegai apologizes for Balder, explaining that they have had to fight many other tribes that have tried to invade their caves. Storm points out that it didn't take long for the Azurians to find them. Others will follow.

Storm has a plan. There must be a power generator and equipment in this shelter, perhaps ones that have never been used. They may be able to use them to make weapons to fight back against the Azurians. Mordegai agrees to the plan. With the help of his people work begins.

TO BE CONTINUED

A Tower in Gelatin Floats By

art by Jeff Call

Our 5e Land of Azurth game continued last night with our heroes planning on taking Gwendolin Goode back to her parents and relieving the pirate queen Black Iris (both of whom they rescued from the Candy Isle) of some of her treasure, but in disagreement about how forcefully they wished to pursue either goal. Before they could come to consensus, Cog sighted something strange off the bow: a large, floating, blue gelatinous bubble with a broken up tower inside, and a few fallen or tottering trees along the outer edge.

The PCs couldn't quite comprehend how this came to be, but it seemed to be drifting, so they surmised it must have slid off land somewhere. Black Iris wants to investigate (which makes Shade the Ranger suspicious of a trap) but talk of a wizard's magic treasure soon has Waylon the thief and Erekose also favoring exploration.

The player's entered the open balcony. I won't describe what they found in detail (you should read Jeff Call's one page dungeon!) but I'll summarize the high points: they defeated a lisping, anthrophagous black pudding with an odd since of propriety, rescuing two scrawny cooks in the process; they saved the same cooks again from a confused, jade bear who turned back into a statuette after being "talked down" by the ranger; they used a table to form a tunnel to protect themselves from falling gelatin to took the weapons from the armory and rescue a servant from the privy, being reward with a gaudy ring of protection with a jewel as large (and as fake) as a ring-pop's.

That was as far as they dared explore with some of the rooms beginning to crumble. The servant told them the sad tale of his former master, the Wizard, Clabber, who had summoned the great former king of the Ooze Folk, Goo the Great, and in doing so brought about his own end. The servant also mentioned "vampire dignitaries," which made them surer in their desire not to push on. They circumnavigated the blob, hoping to find more easy picking near the surface but were unsuccessful.

So they sailed back to the Motley Isles and then for the coast of Yanth. They got 3 magic items from tower, 10% of Black Iris's treasure, and one of her magic items: a page from The Book of Doors, which is a portal to...somewhere. She also introduced them to conspiracies about the hidden malevolence of the Wizard of Azurth, but they considered that to be nonsense. Miss Goode got returned to her parents (though she's likely to run away again) and received a stern lecture from the bard Kully about life choices.

Heroes of the Islands

art by Herb Kāne

Erene was the most beautiful woman in the world, so beautiful that it was said she was the daughter of the Sky God Tiwo, who had lain with the wife of the Chieftain of Raketaminio. She was married to Mengerao son of Ateru, but stolen by Prince Palitisi of Taloia. Mengerao called upon his brother, Akakamuna, mighty chief of Mukanai, his face tattooed with the likeness of the tusk and whiskers of the boar, for aid, and a great host was assembled and there war canoes made for Taloia, with cunning Uluihi, veteran Nehetoru, and strong Aiwaha among them. Greatest in battle would be the demigod Akirihi, who would dance his war dance before palisades of Taloia and kill its champion E’etolo with his shark-toothed war club.

So, basically: Why not recast the Greek Age of Heroes in a pseudo-Polynesian fantasy Oceania? Here's a list of gods (with name variants):

Tiwo/Kiwe: Sky God
Era/Ela: His wife
Emā: Messanger god
Are/Ale: War god
Tiwonuho/Kiwonuho: God of kava and beer
Apaitio/Apaikio: Volcano god.
Pāwone/Aparanu: God of song
Pohetahone/Pohekao: Sea god.
Atana/Akana: Goddess of Wisdom
Atamito/Akemike: Shark goddess of the hunt
Apatite/Apakiki: Love and fertility goddess
Ehatia/Ehakia: Goddess of the cook fires
Tamate/Kamaki: Goddess of cultivated crops, particularly sweet potato and taro

The Motley Isles

The Motley Isles lie but a few miles from the coast of the Country of Yanth in the Boundless Sea. The islands are known as a haven of pirates who value their freedom above all else, except perhaps the plunder they take from hapless ships.  Vessels that call the Motley Isles their home often fly a distinctive flag: a skull and crossbones emblazoned on a crazy-quilt pattern.

The only settlement of note on the isles is Polychrome. The authorities in Yanth and the Land of Azurth in general paint Polychrome (and the Isles in general) as a place without law, but this is not entirely correct. Polychrome has few codified laws, its true (other than those governing apportioning of shares of loot and the sanctity of property) but disputes between between individuals or groups of folk are settled in a prescribed manner. In the town hall of Polychrome there is an ancient, oracular device: a black sphere marked with a skull and crossbones.

The origins of the device are obscure, but it is doubtful that it was made the Land of Azurth. It is operated by shaking it and reading its pronouncement in a window on the underside. The answers it provides requires some interpretation, and that is provided by the officiants who perform the ritual. Such is the aversion of the pirates to anything that smacks of governmental service, they rely on press gangs to force citizens into service.

Wednesday Comics: The Spire

My review of the Storm Chronicles is going to take a two week break but will return. In other comic news, the 2016 Eisner nominees are out and The Spire was among the titles to make the list for "Best Limited Series." I reviewed the first four issues of the series here and then...well, I probably got distracted by something else. But I didn't quit reading the series, and I'm eagerly anticipating it's final issue.

To review, the Spire is a tower-city and bastion of humanity rising out of a toxic alien desert. Commader Shå of the city watch, a "skew" (a slur for a nonhuman), has to deal with the prejudices of the people around her while trying to catch a murderer whose crimes have ties to the city's past.

The issues are available now. The trade will be out in December.

Azurth NPC Card

Over the weekend, I got to thinking using Jeff Call's great character portraits only on the record sheets for the pregens wouldn't allow enough folks to see them all, so I decided to do a giveaway for the Hydra booth: 3x5 NPC cards statted for 5e. Shouldn't be too hard to get those printed up.

Here's a sample of the front and back of one:

Mystery Men! 2nd Edition

John M. Stater of the Land of Nod blog has just recently released the 2nd edition of his Mystery Men! superhero rpg. As readers of this blog know, I am a big fan of superhero stuff, and I've also noted before how Mr. Stater is one of the most prolific quality content generators in these parts, so this project was definitely in my wheelhouse.

D&D mechanic-based superheroes has never been my first go to, but John employs it to really good effect. It seems like it would be light and fast place to play, and without the fiddly bits that slow up character creation in something like Mutants & Masterminds. The graphic design and art both seem to support this sort of "open the book and go!" inviting feel.

John has also got support for the system over on his blog. Only one post for the latest version yet, but you can check out the likes of Crystar the Crystal Warrior for the first edition and a fembot from Doctor Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine.

Check that stuff out, then get over to rpgnow and get yourself a copy.

Meet Ina Quick

North Texas Rpg Con gaming registration opened last night and my session is nearly full. I showed off the character sheet of Sir Clangor, one of the pregens for game previously. Here's another (minus complete equipment): the rogue, Ina Quick.

People of the Feud

There was a colony ship, sent out from Earth or a world very much like it to settle a new world. It's navigators had been genetically modified to take advantage of a new drive system allowing FTL travel. The majority of the colonist were placed into cryogenic suspension for the voyage.

Something went wrong. Inadequate shielding? Purposeful sabotage? No one remembers. The navigators began to mentally breakdown, expose to psychoactive and mutagenic properties of the manifold outside normal spacetime. The ship was stranded stuttering in an out of spacetime.

The navigators began to develop psionic powers and with them certain physical requirements. Boosted quantities of certain neurotransmitters. No synthetic source was available, but there were the stored colonists to feed on.

To help them manage the ship and their food source, the former Navigators awakened a military congent, a few at the time. They mentally enthralled them and enslaved them. Molding them over generations.

As generations passed under the accelerated mutagenesis of the manifold, both the Navigators--calling themselves the Masters now--and their soldier caste had diverged significantly from their original genotype. The Masters had long ago authorized larger scale awakening of more of the colonists to serve as a more docile slave caste--and cattle.

The Masters grew complacent and removed from human concerns and feelings. They didn't see the revolution coming. A soldier named Gith lead a coalition of the soldiers and the menials against their oppressors they now called Mind Flayers after their manner of feeding.

The former Masters were either killed or used their power to flee into the nonspace. The coalition that had brought about their downfall did not long survive. Former menials resented the soldiers as long time collaborators and the soldiers disagreed with the menails attempts to master Mind Flayer psionic disciplines.

When the ship was finally cannibalized and destroyed, two cultures had emerged as firm in their hatred of each other as they were in their former masters.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Green Hell (part 4)

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: The Green Hell (1980)
(Dutch: De Groene Hel)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

The mutants begin dancing, presumably before killing Ember and Storm. Suddenly, there's a loud noise and large begins rushing into the area, washing away most of the mutants, and pouring into the chasm where the ships are.

Storm leads Ember into one of the hulks. He finds what he's looking for: a pair of old spacesuits.Donning the suits, Storm and Ember are safe for the moment. Then, a hatch opens:

The frogmen shoot our heroes with something that knocks them out. They care them down into an underground tunnel. Entering an airlock, they move their wetsuits and reveal themselves to be blue skinned humanoids.

Storm wakes up on a veranda surrounded by lush vegetation. He turns and looks out over an advanced alien city. He hears Ember call his name and runs into the next room where a one of the blue humanoids seems has her on a table and is monitoring her with some sort of device. Storm pushes the man away and they're about to fight when:

The supervisor gestures and their surrounds change to a scene of a space battle. Storm realizes its all a hologram. The visuals reveal a story beginning hundreds of thousands of years ago as the Supervisor narrates: The planet Azuria became overpopulated and its people spread out among the stars and conquered many worlds, including Earth. The Azurians established hidden colonies underground and in high mountains. They took control of the planet's weather. They wiped the minds of the remnant human population and destroyed much of their civilization, reverting them to savagery. As humans civilization rebounded, spies (like Toriander) assured that the Azurians could monitor and control the rate of technological process. The mutants protected the graveyard of ships from prying eyes.

Storm and Ember are threats to this order and their brain must be erased. Storm's not having that.

With the Supervisor as a hostage, the two get back to the airlock and make their escape. They sabotage the equipment before they go. The Azurians swear to catch track them down and destroy them, while Storm vows to take back his world.

END OF VOLUME 4

Assault on the Candy Temple

Last night, our Land of Azurth game continued with our heroes deciding to enter the temple ziggurat of the tribesman of the Candy Isle where they were sure Gwendolin Goode and the Pirate Queen Black Iris were being held.

by Dyson Logos

This map by Dyson Logos served as the temple. In this case, it was made of huge blocks of fudge and built into the side of a chocolate volcano.

Shade the Ranger and the Frox Rogue, Waylon, snuck up and dispatched four gummy guards in Area A. Two outside and two inside, despite Shade's initial qualms about killing them. When the others arrived, they noted paintings on the wall showing the Candy People being led to the temple area by a mysterious glowing man.

The room to the left in Area B contained a baptismal font of cholocate and containers of chocolate dust. Steathing past the larger room, they did peek in past the candy frond-weaved door to see too acolytes post-preparation in the other room in the midst of some ritual. The didn't enter the small side room at that time, but later they found out it was the priest's cell--and it contained the Confection Perfection.

Area C had a large ritual room open in the back into the volcano and a fall of liquid chocolate with an altar in front of it. The room was empty at the current time. In the side room, they discovered a a giant-sized sarcophagus that Waylon and Erekose assumed was full of treasure, but in fact held a ogre-sized, creature wrapped in gum and fruit strip bandages. In was actually a giant adherer, the ancient king Goo-Gum. A number of fire spells finally defeated here, but not before guards were roused from the next room and the priest and his acolytes came from the level above.

A lucky thunderstrike spell obliterated the tribal warriors, and the warriors made short work of the priests--not before Kairon the Sorcerer got hold personed, though.

In the next room, they found the two captives they were looking for. They managed to imtimidate the remaining guards (who knew what carnage the party had wrecked in the adjacent room) who fled to get reinforcements from the village.

Dangerously low on spells, the party made a break for it back up through the temple. When Black Iris mentioned the Confection Perfection, they sent an invisible Waylon back to retreive it only to watch a mysterious mage in magenta beat him to it:

by algenfleger

Waylon made it back to his friends with only a curvy athame (of real metal, not candy!) to show for his effort. Keeping ahead of the angry tribesfolk, our heroes beat a haste retreat around the mountain path and made it back to their ship.

The question is: To get their payment, will they force Gwendolin to return to her parents against her will?

Alternate Ravenlofts

Friday, Jack Shear brought to my attention an idea Kreg Mosier proposed of a Southern Gothic Ravenloft. Which is a great idea. It also got me to thinking about other settings where Ravenloft could be repurposed:

Planet of Vampires

A commercial cargo-hauler spacecraft responds to a call from the Demeter from a nearby planetoid, and finds an planet shrouded in eerie mists. The Demeter's crew have undergone a frightening transformation into the undead. At the center of all this strangeness is a weirdly earth-like castle and its master.

Inspirations: Planet of Vampires, Alien, and the Star Trek episode "Catspaw."

The Creepy Castle

Teenagers returning from Spring Break have their car break down in an eerie fog somewhere in Appalachia. Going the the forbidding European-style castle for help seems like a good idea...

Inspirations: any number of horror films including Texas Chainsaw Massacre; Scooby Doo, and for more of a tripped out euro-feel, things like Nuda per Satana and Requiem pour un Vampire.

A Sampling of the Hydra Sampler

The Hydra Cooperative is proud to be supporting ConTessa and Gen Con. As part of that port we're in the process of putting together a sampler of Hydra products and upcoming products. Above is our tenative cover and here's the Strange Stars OSR page I put together for the sampler:

Space:1977, or Set Coordinates for Planet Funhouse Dungeon

It occurs to me there's never really been a sci-fi equivalent of D&D. (At least back in the day. Maybe someone's doing it now, and I'm just unaware.) By D&D I mean D&D of OG (Original Greyhawk) Gygaxian mode: a stupid, freewheeling, game of exploration that borrows promiscuously from genre media (of multiple genres) without bothering to particularly try to emulate any of it. Traveller is too interested in emulating specific source material and is more serious; Space Opera is goofy enough, but it still wants to be that sci-fi thing you like (whichever one it is) rather than being not any of those things but wearing their clothes. Metamorphosis Alpha and Gamma World get the vibe, but their scopes are more limited.

What I'm talking about is something a bit Vancian, definitely picaresque, where exploration for the purpose of profit is the order of the day. The character archetypes are from all over. An adventuring party might look like the ragtag protagonists in Battle Beyond the Stars (except that John Boy guy would be a Jedi in training and the lizard man would be Tars Tarkas) and act like a more disreputable Serenity crew. Only Silver Age comics truly encompass the level of crazy alien worlds ought to embody--given the appropriate figleaf of Gygaxian realism, of course. I figure adventures would often go down like an episode of Lost in Space, except more people would die. And then the Robot would take their stuff.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Green Hell (part 3)

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: The Green Hell (1980)
(Dutch: De Groene Hel)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

Storm rushes in before Toriander can murder anyone else. He kicks the gun from the killer's hand and beats him up. Toriander calls for his cronies to help, but Ugly Brute stops them on the stairs. Storm brings Toriander out and Ugly Brute tosses him down into the lot of them.

Storm only wants one thing from Toriander: Where did the space helmet come from? Toriander gets very afraid. He says he can't tell or they'd kill him!

As if on cue, lightning flashes and thunder sounds. Toriander begins to run down the walkway. A bolt of lightning lands very near him. He runs again, crying out for mercy. He falls down on his knees, pleading with the skies:

Toriander is ash. Storm and the others wonder at the lightning that seems to have targeted him. They soon have bigger problems as blasts of lightning start destroying Carefree City. As the people fall into the grow below, the vines seem to go alive and attack them, while they are pelted by hail and driving rain.

Ember falls. Ugly Brute is impaled on a giant, poison thorn and Storm falls too. The survivors of the collapse are being killed by the swamp itself. Ember finds Storm and the two manage to find shelter in a cavernous interior formed of trees. Suddenly, a net drops on them--they are captured by the green mutants Ember met before!

What's more, they see something surprising over the edge of a nearby cliff:

TO BE CONTINUED

5e Retro Character Record Sheet

A couple of people asked if I was going to release a blank version of the B/X-ish 5e record sheet I'm using for the Mortzengersturm pregens. I hadn't thought about it before, but I seems like a good idea. A proper pdf will arrive at some point, but here's the front and back with the Mortzengersturm elements removed.

More Pregen PC Portraits

Here's more great Jeff Call art for the pregens in my NTRPGcon game of Mortzengersturm, The Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak:

First up, ZABRA KABRA, Mistress of the Mystic Arts, Wizard (Enchanter):

And here's MINMAXIMUS THE MIGHTY, Dwarf Fighter (Champion):

Apokolips Now

Yesterday, Evan Elkins requested someone do a hexcrawl of Darkseid's homeworld of Apokolips. Since Apokolips is pretty much a particular vision of hell, it seems like the misery can be safely distilled to a pointcrawl. Here's a quick and dirty rundown:

Overview: Apokolips is whole planet composed of a dirty, hellish industrial complex; it produces the implements of Darkseid's war against New Genesis, but it's main product is misery. The majority of the populace are the Hunger Dogs/Lowlies, normal humans who are the oppressed abject slaves of the Apokolipsian elite.

Locations:
Armagetto: The city-slums surrounding Darkseids palace. Security/military patrols are more common than elsewhere. It's the most "police state" of a planet-wde police state.
Fire Pits: These gigantic opening to the planet's core are fed by trash and refuse from the planet-city.
Happiness Home: Here, Lowlie children are trained and indoctrinated under Granny Goodness to become soldiers in Darkseid's armies.
Necropolis: Subterranean domain of the Dreggs--the undead corpses of the Old Gods acting out their days of glory.
Terrorium: An arena where bloodsports are held.
Tower of Rage: Darkseid's palace/fortress with a big sculpture of his head on top. In addition to the Darkseid himself, his chief torturer Desaad can be found here.
Unholy Sea: Supposedly the "lifeblood of Apokolips, where the souls of the deceased are trapped within its icy waters." The Deep Six likely dwell here.

Non-Unique Adversaries/Encounters:
Aero-Trooper: Solider flying on aero-discs.
Dog Cavalry: Elite troops riding giant mastiffs.
Parademons: Flying, genetically modified troops.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Green Hell (part 2)

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: The Green Hell (1980)
(Dutch: De Groene Hel)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

Storm and the old man put up a good fight, the ape men overwhelm them and knock them out. Looting the cabin, one of them accidentally activates a lighter and sets the whole place on fire. The apes flee leaving Storm and the old man at the mercy of the flames.

Meanwhile, Ember and Toriander arrive in Carefree City. When Ember rebuffs his advances:

Ember slaps his bear and it causes it to rear up and knock Toriander over. She makes her escape into the twisting alleyways of the city. Luckily, she meets a saloon owner named Saran that offers her a place to hide.

Storm awakens to find the cabin burning and an apeman dressed in clothes throwing "Gran'pa's" body over the railing. He moves to attack, but the apeman tells him he was only burying Gran'pa: the souls of the dead find peace when their bodies nourish the forest. He's a friend the old man has dubbed "Ugly Brute." Storm saves the the helmet from the fire and tells Ugly Brute he needs to get to Carefree City to ask Sudden Death Toriander about it. Ugly Brute agrees to take him:

In Carefree City. Saran shows Ember her prosthetic arm which she got thanks to Toriander accidentally firing off his gun. She disguises Ember to look like one of the barmaids to hide her from Toriander:

They catch another barmaid eavesdropping, but they aren't sure what she heard. Downstairs in the bar, Toriander is harangying his mooks about their inability to find Ember. The eavesdropping barmaid slinks up and tells Sudden Death the girl he's after is upstairs.

Around this time, Storm and Ugly Brute arrive in Saran's Saloon. They see Toriander race up the stairs. Toriander finds Saran and Ember. When Storm hears Ember cry out, he runs upstars, too:

TO BE CONTINUED