70s Primetime Sci-Fi TV Crossover Timeline

The Planet of the Apes game I'm starting up, isn't just borrowing from that mythos, but stealing liberally from other science fiction shows as well. In talking this over with my friend Jim Shelley of The Flashback Universe Blog, he hit on doing sort of trading cards of major timeline events. Here's my timeline and what Jim did with it. I'm not using everything in the game, but it was a fun
exercise.

An additional note: This is a TV timeline. A lot of dates in Planet of the Apes are given in the movies, so it doesn't so up in this version. The Logan's Run tv show and film offer different starting dates, but the show is being used here (though in my game, should the City of Domes ever show up, I'm using the movie date).

Creation of cyborgs (like the Six Million Dollar Man) may also rank among the late 20th Century's achievements.

Suspended animation was used in spaceflight in the 80s, so either a less developed version was already in use (as suggested by the POTA films) or data from Hunt's project  did lead to a breakthrough despite the loss of the team leader.

The actual date is August 19, 1980.

The Great Conflict is the name given this war in Genesis II/Planet Earth. These shows make it clear that the war occurred in the 20th Century, though it most have been after a subshuttle station we see in the Planet Earth pilot was built in 1992. The Planet of the Apes tv show suggests a later date, no never specifies, but this date fits with the POTA film series. The Logan's Run series sets the apocalyptic war in the 22nd Century, which is why I chose to go with the earlier film dates in my game setup.

This is also true of the 2nd Roddenbery pilot to deal with this material, Planet Earth. There Dylan Hunt is played by John Saxon.

No evolved apes are seen at the time of PAX (or even Logan's Run), true, but it could be the apes were confined to the area that once was California then. Neither of these shows necessarily covered a wide territory.

Astronauts Burke and Virdon arrive in a North America (or at least Western North America) controlled by apes in a well-established civilization in 3085, so the culture must have spread before that.

Hexcrawl on the Planet of the Apes: The Set Up

art by Declan Shalvey

I'm getting ready to start my Planet of the Apes hexcrawl so I prepared a document outlining the mission that brings the PC astronauts to the ape-ruled future. Following the ideas in my initial pitch, there are easter eggs linking to other 70s sci-fi shows:

Wednesday Comics: Future Quest #2 Annotations

My on-going look at Don Lawrence's Storm will take a break so that we can revisit Future Quest, one of DC's re-imagining of classic Hana-Barbera characters. This will contain spoilers.

"Part Two: Visitors from Beyond"

Future Quest #2 (2016), Written by Jeff Parker; Art by Eric "Doc" Shaner, Ron Randall & Jonathan Case

The main cover. Features the nonhuman characters of several Hana-Barbera series: Bandit from Jonny Quest, Blip from Space Ghost, and Zok, Igoo, Gloop and Gleep from The Herculoids.

"Now a spaceship?" Space Ghost materializes in the Everglades and appears ready to blast Jonny and Hadj with his power bands. He seems to be in conflict with someone named Omnikron, then he disappears. The kids next discover a crashed spacecraft, Space Ghost's Phantom Cruiser. Inside, is an injured, unconscious Jan and an irate Blip.

"A lot of tough guys that point guns at kids." A bunch of goons--agents of FEAR from Birdman attack. They also have a spider eye-bot like the one employed by Dr. Zin in the eighth episode of Jonny Quest ("The Robot Spy"). The boys are rescued by the timely arrival of Race Bannon and Birdman.

"Don't you dare point guns at my family!" Dr. Quest and Deva Sumadi arrive in a two-man flying craft of the type we've seen previously employed by Dr. Zin's henchmen in "The Fraudulent Volcano." The badguys manage to get away, though, airlifting out the Phantom Cruiser. They also discovered an unconscious Jace, still under Inviso power.

Jezebel Jade. She appears to be working with Dr. Zin. Jade appeared in two episodes of the original Jonny Quest series. She appears to have a history with Race Bannon, has Dr. Zin hints here again.

Blood & Treasure

John M. Stater of the Land of Nod blog has released the second edition of his retroclone adjacent (meaning it isn't actually a retroclone, but uses the OGL to approximate something resembling older D&D) rpg Blood & Treasure. Unlike genuine retroclones, B&T isn't about emulating an out of print game. It aims to wed the simpler rules and playstyle of historic editions with some of the options and flavor more familiar from modern games. It's a delicate balance to pull off, but John's efforts achieve this better than just about anybody.

John adds some interesting new stuff; he outlines the differences between this and the previous edition here. One of my favorite new details is thieves getting to assemble a crew for jobs at 6th level--though they may not be trustworthy. I also likes the simple variations he provides at the end of the description for every class so you can be a Jester instead of a Bard or a Ninja instead of a Monk.

The art in this edition is great, too. I mean, check out that cover! The interior is good, too, and in an array of styles in true old school fashion.

It's available now on drivethrurpg/rpgnow.

A Hexcrawl on the Planet of the Apes

Here's a rundown (in pictures) of a game of exploration in the Planet of the Apes setting...

In 1980, a team of astronauts are put into cryogenic suspension on a satellite as part of study of longterm suspended animation in the face of classified information obtained from the "ape-o-naut" visitors from the the future in 1973.

The astronauts awaken over a millennia later, to a post-nuclear war world ruled by apes!

Humans are either subjugated by the apes or tribesmen living in the wilderness.

The relics of advanced technology remain, such as the ancient, underground subshuttle system.

Will the astronauts be able to change the future and save the human race--or maybe even find a way back to their own time?

Suicide (Squad) is Painless

I was never terribly excited for Suicide Squad. This isn't my preferred version of the team, and the trailers recalled Guardians of the Galaxy, which was not among my favorite of Marvel films. The negative reviews didn't change my perception. After seeing it last night, I feel like I misjudged Suicide Squad, and I think it is a better movie than rap its getting.

First off, it does resemble GotG in some ways, but uses those similarities to different ends. GotG's AM Gold soundtrack and stock characters were meant to pander and reassure. It wants desperately to convince you that this is like those these things you like and in doing so become on of those things. Whatever Warner Bros.' and Ayers' intentions, the film Suicide Squad seems indifferent to your like or dislike. It wants just to entertain. It uses (or overuses) musical cues like captions or narration to save itself time spent with building scenes or establishing drama. It's got other stuff it wants to do. The characters could all be described in a single comic caption box, but unlike GotG, to the extent that any have hearts of gold, it's only to accentuate the realpolitick evil of Amanda Waller (who out dicks Dick Cheney) and sometime sanctimonious soldier Rick Flagg.

Suicide Squad is perhaps the most comic book-y of comic book movies since the Batman 1966 film spinoff.  It's first 30 minutes plays like a Marvel after credits sequence with cameos and references to movies that haven't been made yet. "Of course a DC Universe exists; let's just start from here," it says, rather than wasting any time trying to prepare a timid audience or slowly build suspension disbelief. Metahumans. Superman's dead. Ancient witches. Batman. And on we go! Harley Quinzel was a Marilyn Monroe breathy-voiced psychiatrist who falls for the platinum-capped psychopath she calls "Mister J" is only as convincing as the images themselves burlesque backstory you know. Either you buy it or not, we ain't going to try to convince you.

In the end (again like GotG), it succumbs to defeating a narratively poorly sold and visually uninteresting and CGI swirly world menace, in a run of the mill superhero action sequence. Before that it's a live action 00s comic, and the extent to which you like it may be dependent on how you feel about that.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Secret of the Nitron Rays

Storm: The Secret of the Nitron Rays (1981) (part 4)
(Dutch: Het Geheim van de Nitronstralen)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

Storm and the Earth forces set a trap for the Azurian pirates by hiding in a slow moving cargo vessel they know the raiders won't be able to resist. The plan works, but neither Bitak or the traitor Benjamin are among them. Apparently, she took one of the spacecraft the pirates had captured and they took off.

Storm is convinced he's got to pursue Benjamin. He takes a dimension ship to go from Azurian colony to colony looking for them. He doesn't have much luck.

Benjamin and Bitak have reached a Azurian colony Benjamin was searching for: a place where they find an old enemy of Storm's, the Supervisor. When Benjamin tells him why they've come, he agrees to help them.

Back on Earth, Storm decides they had best finally solve the mystery of Bitak's powers. Eventually, Mordegai's notes guide a young scientist, Correll, to the answer: Azurians of a certain rare bloodtype will develop powers when exposed to nitron radiation. As luck would have it, 100 Azurians they tested have the bloodtype and are willing to be experimented on:

It works!

Out on the Azurian colony, Bitak has become displeased with Benjamin. After he slaps her, she blows up some of his work and runs away. Benjamin tells the Supervisor it doesn't matter: he now knows the secret of her power. The Supervisor embarks on his on plan to develop more telekinetics.

In a stolen ship, Bitak is picked up by an Earth patrol. She tells Storm and the others about the plans of Benjamin and the Supervisor. Storm summons the telekinetic Azurians they created.

They don't have the wait long. The Supervisor's force arrive. His telekinetic forces create fierce storms and waterspouts, but they are neautralized by the Earth telekinetics. Then, it's old fashion ship to ship fighting.

The Supervisor wants to retreat. Benjamin pulls a gun on him; he's not willing to give up so easy. Unfortunately for him, the Supervisor also had the rare bloodtype:

The Supervisor manages to escape, but most of his forces aren't so lucky.

Bitak and the other telekinetics decide to take the dimension ships and find their own world where they can live in peace. Storm and Ember bid them good bye.

The Apes of the Redwoods for 5e

In a previous post, I presented the fairly human apes of the original Planet of the Apes films. The two (so far) prequel films present a far more ape-like vision of evolved apes. They are probably less suitable as PCs but would make interesting monsters/NPCs. This is the apes as we see during Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Chimpanzees/Bonobos/Orangutans
Medium humanoid
AC 12
Hit Points: 11 (2d8+2)
Speed: 30 ft. (quadrapedal); 20 ft. (fully bidepal); 30 ft. (climb)
STR 16(+3) DEX 14(+2) CON 14(+2) INT 9(-1) WIS 12(+1) CHA 10(+0)
Skills  Athletics +5, Perception +3
Senses passive Perception 13
Languages sign language, limited Common

Actions:
Multiattack. A chimpanzee can make two fist attacks, but prefers a melee or ranged weapon.
Fist. +5 to hit, reach 5 ft.; Hit: 6 (1d6+3) bludgeon damage.
Spear. +5 to hit (reach 5 ft.; one creature). Hit: 1d6+4 melee piercing damage.
Rifle. +4 to hit (range 60/180 ft.; one creature).  Hit: 2d8+2 piercing damage.

The above stats hold for Gorillas, though I would make them a bit stronger, STR 17 (+3)--with damage adjusted accordingly--and a bit less intelligent (INT 8) and Charisma 9. This disagrees a bit with the Ape entry in the Monster Manual, but I think they undercut gorillas.

Mark over at Cross Planes presents a slightly different view of the same characters.

Star Trek Beyond

I finally got around to seeing Star Trek Beyond this weekend and I would agree with the assessment that it is an improvement over the last NuTrek film, and possibly the most Classic Star Trek in vibe of the bunch. It's certainly as "trekky" as most of the Next Generation era films.

Things I really liked:
- Several Explicit references to Enterprise. Enterprise-era technology comes into play, we see Enterprise-era uniforms, and the Xindi War is referenced.
- The design of the Yorktown Starbase and the swarm nature of Krall's fleet are a departure from anything we've seen in Star Trek before, true, but they're good visuals and good sci-fi, expanding the possible of the Star Trek universe. They also would fit really well in Strange Stars.
- Shohreh Aghdashloo from The Expanse in a small role as a Starfleet Admiral. Perhaps it was a bit of stunt-casting given her role in another science fiction series or maybe not, but at any rate she was a good choice.

Things they continue to be solid with NuTrek films:
- All the main cast members get something to do, and the actors are good in the roles.
- Good action sequences (and better than the last film) and good pacing.
- If you've got to destroy the Enterprise, this film does it in a reasonably gripping and spectacular way.

Things I didn't like:
- I thought the uniforms in NuTrek were great. The change isn't terrible, but it's a step down for me.
- A whole bunch of aliens in multiple scenes but never any we've seen before. (Old Trek films are guilty of this same thing, though.) Would it kill 'em to show me an Andorian or Tellarite?

Dangling Questions:
- What is the "in story" reason that Krall and his cronies' true identities were obscured? Was it purposeful or a by-product of their life extension somehow?

Mutants of the Forbidden Zone

MUTANT 
(Medium humanoid)
AC 10
Hit Points: 11 (2d8+2)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR 10(+0) DEX 10(+0) CON 12(+1) INT 19(+4) WIS 14(+2) CHA 14(+2)
Skills  Insight +8
Senses passive Perception 12
Languages telepathy 120 ft.; Common

Mental Powers. A mutant has the equivalent of innate spellcasting based on Intelligence (save DC XX). They can utilize the following abilities:

At will: detect thoughts, dissonant whispers, dominate person
1/day: equivalent of phantasmal killer, clairvoyance

Combined Illusions. Three or more mutants working in concert (all concentrating) can great large scale illusions over long distances less than 5 mi.) similar to arcane mirage, hallucinatory terrain, or programmed illusion. Saving throws are the same as if one Mutant were creating them.

Actions:
Melee weapion--though Mutants tend to rely on mental powers.

The Mutants are a sect of humans living in the Forbidden Zone, in the underground ruins beneath what was once Manhattan. Exposure to radiation has led them to develop powerful psionic abilities but scarred features that they hide beneath human masks.

Mutants claim to be pacifists. There primary means of defense is not direct confrontation, but keeping enemies away. The stats above present an "average" psionically talented mutant. A guard would have slightly more robust physical abilities.

Some reports suggest the Mutants are able to mind control people over great distances as well as project illusions. Like the illusion powers, this is likely done by groups working together.

Go Ape with 5e

As presented in the original films, the apes are fairly un-ape-like in characteristics (because of course, they are played by people in masks, but that’s beside the point). Taking what we see on screen and what we are told of ape history as true, we may assume they have been genetically modified/selectively bred to something closer to a australopithecine morphology. They don’t possess the long upper limbs and associated strength, relatively stronger jaws, or opposable great toes of modern apes.

Ability score increase. +1 to any two abilities of their choice.
Speed. The apes of POTA are more bipedal than extant apes, but their foot structure still doesn't appear to be as optimized for upright walking as a humans, and they tend to have a stooped posture. Base walking speed is 25.
Grounded. For whatever reason, apes are less susceptible to illusions and mind control. They have an advantage on saving throws to resist such attacks or attempts at subterfuge.
Keen Nose. Proficiency in smell-related Perception checks.

Subraces/Subspecies:

Chimpanzee
Ability score increase. +1 Intelligence.
Studious. Gain proficiency in either one Intelligence or Wisdom skill, or a tool proficiency.

Gorilla
Ability score increase. +1 Strength.
Menacing. Gain Intimidation proficiency.

Orangutan
Ability score increase. +1 Charisma.
Knowledge Keeper. Gain proficiency in one Intelligence skill.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: Secret of the Nitron Rays

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

Storm: The Secret of the Nitron Rays (1981) (part 4)
(Dutch: Het Geheim van de Nitronstralen)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

The human traitor Benjamin again faces execution by the Azurian pirates who want to shoot him into space on what looks like a surfboard. Bitak again intervenes with her powers, explaining that if they killed him, she wouldn't have anyone to play with.

Meanwhile on Venus, Storm and Ember gear up and dive into the lake. They find the drowned ruins of the mysterious temple and the room with towering statues of Storm. Suddenly, a door in the chamber opens. The water drains from the room and it fills with air. Then:

The fishmen appear to worship Storm as the living lord of the statues. They found them when a ship crashed into their lake home. Storm theorizes that they must have been made to honor him by some weird cult after he disappeared into Jupiter (which seems a bit of a stretch, but ok).

The fishmen have a surprise for Storm and Ember. So that they can worship them forever--they plan to turn them into fishpeople! Before they can go to work, the door is blasted open and some soldiers from the surface come to the rescue. They can looking for Storm and Ember when they knew it would be time that their tanks would be running out. The fishmen are chased off.

Storm and crew return to the surface. He's got a plan to catch the Azurian pirates.

TO BE CONTINUED

The Sacred Scrolls, Illustrated

Having watched Planet of the Apes (1968) on the big screen this weekend, I've got the PotA franchise on the brain. I've blogged before about a couple of great reference works written by Rich Handley. I discovered there's another by that same author and others: Sacred Scrolls: Comics on the Planet of the Apes.

I haven't got it yet (it's on order), but it promises to cover everything from the Gold Key stuff to BOOM! Studios. As long as the story depicted on this cover gets the attention it deserves , I'll be happy:

Teasing Hubris

Mike "Wrathofzombie" Evans's successfully kickstartered campaign setting, Hubris: A World of Visercal Adventure, is set to drop in September, I believe. I've got my advanced backers copy, and if "a visceral world of adventure" is a phrase that intrigues you, I think you will want to see this.

Hubris (we're told in the intro) is a world created from the corpse of a dead god. That sort of sets the tone. It's a bit Sword & Sorcery in its underlying chassis, but its not about purple prose, instead it creates more a Heavy Metal Magazine or sensibility, with a hint of Dark Sun, maybe. I could see it easily having been illustrated by Brom, Simon Bisley or Tim Truman. We don't get either of those guys, but we get David Lewis Johnson, Jeremy Duncan, Doug Kovacs, and Jason Sholtis among others, so we weren't suffering there!

As an example of the tone, one of my favorite bits is the Murder Machine race which is sort of like the Warforged with a bit of the Kuath from Strange Stars, but more metal than either of those things by at least seventy-five percent. The write-up is accompanied by an awesome Jeremy Duncan illustration that has a badass Ian Miller vibe.

Mike used Dungeon Crawl Classics as his ruleset, which has the right vibe. There are a lot of tools here (inspired by Vornheim which is Mike's not-so-secret rpg crush) which make it usable in pieces even if you don't want to go with the whole world.

I imagine it will be up for sale once the Kickstarter has been fulfilled, so even if you didn't Kickstarter you'll have a chance to check it out.

Xmas in July and Strange Stars in Spanish

Listen to sparkly Glamdalf from the Hill Cantons and check out the sale over at Rpgnow. There's a lot of good stuff besides Hydra stuff--but there's Hydra stuff, too! Fill out your collection.

On the Hydra-related front, Strange Stars is now available in pdf in Spanish, too, as Estrellas Extrañas from Hirukoa!

Giant Space Robot, Revisited

I've been thinking about fleshing out my barebones Giant Space Robot game idea. Earth is in danger! Only intrepid human pilots controlling giant robots from space can save us! 

While we wait for me to do that, you can check out these posts on it from the past: Here's my initial sketch of the game. Here's various Godzillas statted for it. And this is a gigantic Frankenstein's monster.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Secrets of Nitron Rays

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

Storm: The Secret of the Nitron Rays (1981) (part 3)
(Dutch: Het Geheim van de Nitronstralen)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

The traitor Benjamin's ship is brought down on one of the asteroids by the power of Bitak, who is now apparently working with Azurian pirates. Benjamin pleads for his life, saying he killed Mordegai (true) and he is on  the Azurian's side (a lie). The pirate leader, Fahir, lets him live for now, while they investigate his claim.

Elsewhere, an Earth reconnaissance craft encounters a vessel drifting. It has something unusual in it's hull.

A statue of Storm.

The logbook suggests the ship was from the colony on Venus. They found the statue and were bringing it to Earth when they were attacked by pirates. Storm believes the statue must be from the 21st Century as it shows him in the clothes he was wearing when he left for his mission on Jupiter. They discover the statute was found in Lake Tecumseh, the site of one of the early Terran colonies on Venus during the terraforming. Storm wants to go their to investigate.

As their ship nears the site, they see signs of battle. The pirates are attacking the scientists. Storm's approach puts the Azurians into a panic. Fahir tries to get Bitak to destroy Storm's ship, but she refuses. He slaps her and she responds:

Bitak refuses to go with the fleeing Azurians, but they hit her over the head and take her anyway. The Azurian cruiser is fired upon by an Earth star-cruiser, but Bitak uses her power to save them. The pirates are able to make their escape.

Meanwhile, Storm and Ember and helping the survivors of the pirate attack. An old man recognizes Storm from the statue. He tells Storm that children discovered it diving for stones in an old temple from the early colonization centuries ago. There was a room full of statues.

This has Storm intrigued. He decides to put on a diving suit and check it out.

TO BE CONTINUED

Hohmmkudhuk

by Jason Sholtis

Hohmmkudhuk* are dwarfish beings resembling bipedal anteaters whose dorsal surface is covered with over-lapping, plate-like scales similar to a pangolin's. They spend much of their life underground in great subterranean halls or warrens. They are clannish and eusocial. Each hall belongs to a Queen, though her holdings are managed by her mate or mates, the Drone-Princes, of which there may be as many as three.

Only the Queen and her consorts reproduce, the rest of the clan is made up of their siblings and children who are sterile. Children are raised communally and in the same way: they pass through a sort of apprenticeship, doing low-skilled tasks as soon as they are able, then advancing to the role of warrior, trader or artisan as they so aptitude and develop the appropriate skills.

If the Queen dies or decides it is time to create a daughter-clan, one of her female progeny becomes able to reproduce and becomes a new queen. This new Queen will have a mate from an unrelated clan. These unions are arranged to form alliances, but their is also a strong tradition of wandering male adventurers winning the heart of a young queen.

Hohmmkudhuk know the ways of the underground and the working of stone. Their magic is bent to this purpose. They personify the planet itself as a goddess.

Hohmmkudhuk Traits
Ability Score Increase. Constitution score is increased by 2 and Wisdom is increased by 1.
Alignment. Hohmmkudhuk tend toward lawfulness.
Size. Hohmmkudhuk are around 4 feet tall, but heavy for their height.
Speed. Base walking speed is 25 feet.
Darkvision. Accustom to life underground Hohmmkudhuk can see 60 feet within dim light as if it were bright light.
Natural Armor. Due to their scales, Hohmmkudhuk get a +1 bonus to Armor Class.
Resilence. Hohmmkudhuk have an advantage on saving throws against poison and resistance against poison damage.
Languages. Hohmmkudhuk can speak and read the Common language of humans. They also speak and read their on consonant-laden, rumbling tongue.

*pronounced ho-hmmm-ku-thuk, where u is as in put and th as in though.

Dungeons & Stranger Things

Watching Stranger Things the very 80s horror/sci-fi Netflix series last night gave me an idea. I won't be discussing a lot of plot detials here, but I will mention some setting/situation stuff, so the absolutely spoiler averse should beware...

So strange things are afoot in a small town, that seem to involve another dimension/universe whose walls have been breached by a nefarious research organization and D&D-playing kids investigating these goings. What if the other world was something more like a "realm of Dungeons & Dragons," as the Dungeon Master in the old cartoon used to say?

Somehow (psychic powers, I'm guessing, but maybe a device), a gaming group gets transported to this parallel realm that is a distorted mirror or their home town, filled with the trapping and set-dressing of setting-nebulous D&D. Like, geographically, where the nefarious corporations facility is, there's a mountain where evil creatures dwell. The sublevels beneath the facility are (of course) dungeons. The corporations video archive room might be a forbidden library, etc. The kids aren't transported into this realm to stay, like the D&D cartoon or Joel Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame novels, but instead visit there in sessions and return to the regular mundane world at other times.

The kids are trying to solve a mystery of some sort in the real world. The forays into D&D fantasyland would need to serve this mystery somehow, allowing them to gain information or get access to places that they couldn't get to "in the real world." While the presentation would be different things would work pretty much the same as the Matrix/real world divide in the Matrix films.

You could run a campaign with two systems (or at least two settings) in tandem. The players would play kids in the real world 80s small town, but also kids playing D&D characters in a more conventional D&D game. The goal of adventuring in the D&D world would be to ultimately solve the mystery in the real world. Both worlds would be essentially mystery sandboxes.

The Savage Sword of El Cid

Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, the man called El Cid, famous war leader of Medieval Spain, got the comic book treatment from in Eerie Magazine in the mid-1970s--and now a collection from Dark Horse. Though not as gonzo as the history-be-damned romp that was DC's Beowulf (where, I will remind you, Grendel battled Dracula to see who would replace Satan), it kicks history and even legend to the curb to present El Cid as Prince Valiant by way of Conan and the Medieval world as something more akin to the Hyborian Age.

While this approach is not unique in comics (Arak: Son of Thunder did a similar thing--though Thomas borrowed more from myth and legend), The approach of writer Budd Lewis and artist Gonzalo Mayo is different. Lewis tends to write it caption-heavy like a latter day Prince Valiant, albeit with more sword & sorcery paperback prose. Mayo is one of a number of Spanish artists in the Warren Magazines that look somewhat similar (and this is by no means a criticism), so if you recall Esteban Maroto's illustrations in the Ace Conan volumes, then you have the basic idea of how the world of El Cid looks. He does "homage" some poses at at times: Frazetta's ghoul queen at one point, and Racquel Welch on the this page below:

It's pretty standard 70s Sword & Sorcery stuff, but if you like that--and I know a know a number of my readers do--you should check this collection out.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Secret of the Nitron Rays

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

Storm: The Secret of the Nitron Rays (1981) (part 2)
(Dutch: Het Geheim van de Nitronstralen)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

After the defeat of the Azurian fleet, the remaining Azurian colonists settle down to live together peacefully with humans. Human and Azurian children are educated together in some places. In one of these, Bitak, the girl found in the nitron caves, is at the center of some strange events. She's got telekinetic powers, apparently.

After he tells Storm, Modegai also reveals that she has a blood group rare among Azurians.He plans to visit the colony where she lives, but he is suddenly struck by a mysterious malady. Benjamin, Mordegai's assistant, is handily also a doctor. He blames it all on stress.

Storm and Ember head off the visit the colony for Mordegai, leaving the old man in Benjamin's hand, who makes some cryptic comments as they fly off.

Storm and Ember observe for themselves Bitak's powers. They plan to take her back with them so her abilities can to studied further. On the way back over the frozen sea, Bitak gets bored and decides she wants to see the moon again. Storm tells her that's impossible; the ship isn't made for that. Bitak doesn't take no for an answer:

Accelerating out the atmosphere, the three lose consciousness. Unguided, the ship is headed toward some asteroids at the Lagrange point. Luckily, they are spotted by an Azurian pirate ship hiding there. When the Storm and the others are brought aboard, Storm is recognized. The Azurians blame him for their current situation. One once to ransom him, but another decides to kill him--only to be stopped by Bitak's power:

The pirates decide Bitak is the real treasure. They put Storm and Ember back on the ship and send it toward Earth. When they try to contact Mordegai, they get Benjamin, He tells them Mordegai's condition has worsened--then tells his suboordinate an Azurian recon craft is approaching and it must be destroyed.

The fighters shoot down Storm and Ember's craft. They survive the crash, but have to walk a ways to civilization. There they are told that Benjamin had declared both of them dead, murdered by Azurian separatists, and was using that story to incite violence against Azurians.

Storm and Ember sneak into the strife-torn city by night.. They confront Benjamin who is in the act of administering poison to Mordegai. Once Balder finds the truth he's about the kill the traitor, but Benjamin bargains for his life and freedom in exchange for an antidote for Mordegai. Storm makes the deal.

Unfortunately, it's a trick. Benjamin escapes while Mordegai dies in agony after Storm administers the "antidote"--actually a fatal dose of poison.

Meanwhile,. Benjamin's craft has reached the Lagrange point. Suddenly, something pulls him off course...

TO BE CONTINUED

Jailbreak in the Etheric Zone

In the continuation of our 5e Land of Azurth campaign, the PCs arrived at the Carnelian Hypercube, a prison for those who have committed "crimes most cosmic" disguised as bounty hunters. They were there to rescue one of the two (known) surviving Super-Wizards at the behest of the other one, Zuren-Ar. He assures them they will able to get past security whereas someone of his vast powers would not be able to.

From the PCs perspective, the hypercube looks like a regular old cube--albeit a gigantic one made of red, semi-precious stone. Every face is patrolled by giant creatures that look like spheres, sectioned like an orange, but with eyes and mouths on the faces of each section that rotate, and ten tentacles in between. These were the Decaton guardians.There eyes shot scanning beams, but the documents the PCs stole and the story they gave got them by. Zuren-Ar had halted his approach at a safe distance so as not to meet these guys.

A pyramidal creature and its one-eyed spheroid flunkies took the prisoners from them. (Including the Lagomorfan the PCs had said they would set free!) When the guards were distracted, the PCs took an a doorway to Cell Block 7. The internal geometry of the hypercube was confusing as up and down shifted between so areas, but luck for the players, they didn't need to go far.

Zuren-Ar had given them a device to locate his beloved Xura, and it led them to her cell. They had to fast-talk some guards, but they remembered Zuren-Ar's admonition to speak with authority to them and keep things simple. Confused guards tended to stop and consult others in their beeping and blipping language, usually giving our heroes time to slip away. So they found her:

by ㅇㅇ JOO

Xura Kru-Ul. She's every bit as imperious as her lover and a bit more unpleasant. Still, a job's a job, so the PCs freed her., despite the warning of the mantid humanoid in the cage next door who claimed she was worse than he was. Of course, he did admit to wiping off all the mammals on his planet. Once Xura was sprung, the guards came running, but outside of her cell, her magic worked and she was able to mass teleport them too...

Well, right in the middle of the guard pyramid, thanks to the disorienting effects of the hypercube. They faced one of the supervisors:

And it called for backup. Our heroes were in battle with at least fifteen guards of various sorts. With the luck of the dice on their side, they were able to cut through them before more reinforcements arrived, though their bard go paralyzed briefly. The group broke away with more of the guards on their heels and managed to make it out through the exit (in a way, the location of the guard pyramid proved to be a lucky break). They caught a glimpse of what might be the warden, a giant being inside a panopticon sphere:

On the outside, the decaton was moving in slooowly. It did scan them with a blast that seemed to shiver the souls of at least a few but had no visible effect.

Zuren-Ar was reunited with Xura Kru-Ul. He teleported the party back to close to the portal to Azurth in gratitude, but announced just before he did, they he and Xura were going off the found an empire.

Mall Security 2020

Let's go back to the 80s when the Soviet Union was still a thing, indoor malls were at their height, and the dystopian near future wasn't usually full of zombies.  from that early 80s mindset, imagine the world of somewhere around 2020...

The environment isn't so good. In fact, there was probably a brief nuclear exchange some time in the past decades. And an economic crisis or two. Things aren't all that bad, though. Rampant consumerism still abounds, and this guy (or his clone) is still President:

Megacorporations helped America (the world actually) out of those crisis with a leveraged buyout--a sponsorship. The Soviet Union was bought out, too, only over there in USSR^tm, they offer consumers a planned community with a "Golden Age of Communism" theme. In the good ol' USA, some rednecks, religious cults, and survivalist nuts stick to the environmentally-damaged rural areas (think Mad Max meets Winter's Bone), and some wealthy folks can afford walled enclaves meant to replicate idyllic suburban life of the 20th Century with protection by real police, but most people huddle around the decaying industrial city cores in neon-lit arcologies that combine shopping and living in one. Malls.

These Malls need protecting and that's where the PCs come in as deputized corporate security officers safe guarding the 21st Century American Dream!^tm from all sorts of threats to peace and prosperity: trigger-happy poli-clubs, youth gangs, subversives, and consumer products run amuck. Think Shadowrun with less punk and less cyber. And presented as a Nagel painting.

So this is American Flagg! or Judge Dredd (with more of an MTV aesthetic), influenced by any number of 70s and 80s dystopian films like Rollerball or Robocop, mostly played with the black humor of the latter. Literary sources like Shockwave Rider and Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner or some later Cyberpunk works will also be informative.