Operation Unfathomable: The Last Hours & DCC Conversion

Just hours to go for the Operation Unfathomable Kickstarter and we just unlocked the DCC Conversion by Paul Wolfe!

If you've been waiting until the last minute, this is it!

Wednesday Comics: Prez

No Storm today as I was watching the U.S. Presidential Election return last nights, but I do want to recommend a couple of presidential collections:

Prez is the title of two DC Comics about teenage presidents. The first debuted in his own short-lived title written by Joe Simon and drawn by Jerry Grandenetti in 1973. The series is predicated on the notion of a Constitutional amendment lowering the age for eligibility for office (which may have been inspired by the 1968 film Wild in the Streets). The upshot is a teenager gets elected, and who better than a earnest and idealistic kid from Middle America whose mother even named him “Prez” ‘cause she thought he’d be President one day? 

Finally, because you (or somebody) demanded it, The Prez has been collected. This collection includes the four issues of The Prez's run, an unpublished story from Cancelled Comics Cavalcade #2, and a continuity-twisting tale from Supergirl #10. Neil Gaiman brought Prez out of comics limbo in Sandman #54 in 1993. This led a sort of follow-up in Vertigo Vision: Prez. Miller and Morrison also used the Prez in Dark Knight Strikes Again #2 and the Multiversity Guidebook. All of these deuterocanonical texts are included, as well.

In 2015, an all-new, all-different Prez is introduced. This is Beth Ross, an Oregon teen who's elected via Twitter in 2036. The series by writer Mark Russell and artist Ben Caldwell. It only lasted 12 issues, but it was fun while it lasted, providing a modern update to the concept.

The Final Countdown

The Operation Unfathomable Kickstarter has a little over two days to go, but Hydra isn't taking our collective foot off the gas. This weekend, we had 3 new stretch goals to sweeten the deal:

$16,000: Jason's original smash blog compilation The Dungeon Dozen
$19,000: Operation Unfathomable Players Guide a mini-comic
$18,000: Dungeon Dozen II Sneak Preview

If you haven't backed, now's the time.

The Sometimes Dubious Bounty of the Vats

In the Age of Space Exploration, nourishment for space voyages is provided by application of scientific principles. As the natural process of putrefaction on the Earth and the other worlds leads to the spontaneous generation of vermin, the alchemist may utilize this same process to create more pleasing and usual forms of life in the generation vats of a vessel.

The vital energies of the sun are capture and channeled to the vats where they inseminate the matrix of ship wastes and alchemical mucilage--often informally called slime. By calibration of temperature, matrix composition, and other factures, any natural animal may be grown. Food generation must be started weeks before it is needed, else only the lowliest sorts of creatures may be generated. Some researchers have experimented with various means to speed up the process, but this increases the rate of errors, discussed below. A similar process can be used to grow Homonculi for menial tasks, though only the largest of ships would carry enough matrix to do so, or to feed the extra mouths created afterward. The Turk do not create Homonculi at all, citing some pious objection, but exclusively employ automata.

Improperly prepared mucilage or exposure to some stray cosmic influence or energy, sometime creates dangerous, ill-formed masses or cancers: slimes, puddings, and oozes, are they variously named based on the identifiable properties. For example, the Black, Gray, or Leaden Pudding shows Saturnine influence and character.

Doctor Strange

First a warning: There maybe be some mild spoilers for the latest installment in the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" in what follows.

I have to admit, that as excited I was that there was going to be a Doctor Strange movie when it was first announced, I have not had much enthusiasm passed on the teasers and early trailers. Some of the that might have been me just tiring of Marvel's house style, but for whatever reason, I was underwhelmed.

The actual film wound up being better than I had expected. The design aesthetic of Marvel's films when it comes to the really fantastic non-superhero elements (Asgard in particular, but also some parts of Guardians of the Galaxy) has always left me cold. Also, the relentless desire to de-mystify or over-rationalize all the magical elements of the Marvel Universe works passably with some things (like the Darkhold on Agents of SHIELD) but hollowed out the grandeur of Kirby's sci-fi Norse mythology from Thor.

Happily, Doctor Strange is not particularly de-mystified. (The Ancient One offers an explanation of magic similar to one of the options Kenneth Hite provided Rough Magicks.) In fact, they really play up the (unintended presumably) psychedelia of the Ditko-era stories, though they convert it to a more filmic approach. There are resonances with both 2001 and Afronosky's The Fountain.

How the magic is employed winds up being a bit like a combination of The Matrix, Inception, and previous superhero films. I like how they moved away from strictly super-powers, and you could see how they were reaching for Ditko and perhaps Starlin with some of it. The spells as mostly sputtering sparks drawn in the air didn't quite suit me, though I don't have a ready alternative in mind. It all worked passably.

The plot is a means to an end. The similarities to Inception and The Matrix at times made its mere adequacy more evident, but when you're a vehicle for elaboration of a shared universe, you don't have to shoulder so much weight yourself, I suppose. All the cast does a pretty good job with what they are given. Tilda Swinton, despite expressly being "Celtic," does the movements, stances, and cryptic comments of the "Asian Master" almost as much as Joel Grey in Remo Williams without the obivous yellowface, so I'm not sure not casting an non-Asian actor as the Ancient One really allowed us to avert all those stereotypes. Still, I liked her protrayal.

The Marvel fan in me exulted to see the Dread Dormammu (Though I was underwhelmed by his dread "we didn't think about this very much" CGI-ness. He was of the ilk of Parallax in the Green Lantern film or "The Absorbing Man" in Ang Lee's Hulk). Further fannishness: Instead of having Mikkelsen's baddie be named for a mook that worked for Baron Mordo in the comic, why not have him be Kaluu, the Ancient One's rival?

Christmas Comes Early

In line with the Christmas decorations already up in many a retail establishment, Action Lab has released the Christmas comic Northstars Vol 1: Welcome to Snowville on Comixology. it will be out in hardcopy later this month, I believe. This kids comic (something of an homage to those TV Christmas Specials and Harvey Comics of yore) is written by my friend, sometime collaborator, and fellow rpger, Jim Shelley and his daughter, Haigen. Art is supplied by the very talented Anna Liisa Jones who I would love to have do something for the Land of Azurth one day.

Here's one of the character designs:

Wednesday Comics: Storm: City of the Damned

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

Storm: City of the Damned (1982) (part 3)
(Dutch: Stad der Verdoemden)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Kelvin Gosnell

When last we left our heroes, the computer guiding the city makes a request of Storm: Strange energy barriers have appeared in places across the city without warning. People can cross into the areas behind them but not back out. Thousands of people have been lost in these sectors. The computer believes only someone like Storm--a fighter, a survivor--can sole this crisis.

Storm isn't interested. He doesn't like the computer's interference.

Ember urges him not to be so rash. He should take some time to think it over. She believes there is something strange happening here.

Storm finds it ironic that she is suggesting anyone be careful. He also thinks her curiosity can get them killed. He does agree to sleep on it, though.

Storm finds a strange woman in his room. She says her name is Anor. She is a product of those genetic experiments to develop psychic powers: A successful experiment.

Her powers are strong enough to overcome Storm. She reports back to her unseen master.

The next morning Ember finds Storm missing from his quarters. She finds him in Terminal One walking arm in arm with Anor. She informs Ember Storm has decided to stay permanently in the city. Ember is confused. She offers Storm his sword he had left behind. Storm says he doesn't need it anymore.

Bewildered and angry, Ember storms off and comes upon one of the energy barriers. Passing through, she finds herself in a place of darkness where brutish guys with Medieval weapons attack her. She drives them off, only to be attacked again by a towering dark knight whose sword drops bubbles or eggs with tiny reptiles inside:

She's rescued by people who live in the maintenance tunnels. They too passed through the barrier at one point to be stuck in this world of shadow. When a barrier goes up, the people are enslaved and forced to work demolishing building for scrap. Most of the metal is used to make weapons of war to outfit an army. The leader of this army is a man named Gor, a product of experiments that gave him to power to dominate men's minds. When the experimenters tried to destroy him, he teleported into the underworld beneath the city.

Those able to control others develop red eyes. Ember remembers the woman with Storm had read eyes. She must be controlling him!

Ember has to rescue him. If she can't go through the barrier, she'll go around. She throws a mace through a window and prepares to climb the outside of the city.

TO BE CONTINUED

Voyage to the Sun

The Demiurge, the creator of the Cosmos, convalesces within the Sun. His rest is not to be disturbed on order of the Heavenly Powers. Even in repose, the orb of pure creative energy formed around him is a source of life for the entire Cosmos; a source of the animating substance azoth as well as mundane heat and light.

The energy spontaneously generates lifeforms, in shapes, perhaps, from the dreams of the Demiurge. Angels flit about, recording the birth of ever creature, and assuring nothing dangerous escapes, though solar flares sometimes eject such beings beyond their reach.

Their activities are directed by the Oyarses Och. It may be that Och is mere avatar of the Demiurge. Certainly she is able to tap into the mind of that being. Och sometimes speaks with visitors, mostly warning them away, for fallen beings like humans were never intended to look upon the resting creator or walk in the splendor of the solar halls.

This doesn't stop them from trying. Swift and specially-hulled sunrakers set out from Mercury to catch what plumes of azoth they can. Such cargo brings a high price on other worlds.

The Halloween Special

Sorry, no Fall Guy or Elvira actually in this post. I didn't do any Halloween related posts this year, but just sit back and relive these horror-themed classics:

Need a name for a horror comic? Generate it with this post.
Ever heard the legend Spring-hilled Jack? Well here are his stats.
A different way of the thinking of Ghost Towns, from Weird Adventures, but usable anywhere.
And finally, a 2013 Santacore request unwittingly opens, "The Tome of Draculas!"

Rapping With Thrantrix

Anybody who has watched the Operation Unfathomable Kickstarter video is familiar with that chaos godling and bon vivant (well, maybe just the former) Thrantrix the Ineffable. Now, as you know, Chaos Godlings say the darnedest things, and that Thrantrix is quotable beyond all others. Hydra has a little contest going: Give us your best Thrantrix quotations and we'll collect them into one tome. Also, the very best will go into the adventure as "sample dialogue" the godling might drop on the PCs, so that's the sort of quotation we're looking for: cutting adventurer put-downs, Underworld gossip, incomprehensible cosmic musings, weird worship requirements, gripes about other Godlings, etc.

The top submission will receive the actual model of Thrantrix that appeared in our Kickstarter video, once the campaign ends and a winner has been chosen!

Bad Hombres on the Planet of the Apes

"THE WAR WHEEL" 

Player Characters:
Jeff Call as Brock Irving
Jarrett Crader as Aurelius
Billy Longino as Olsen Potter Graves
Lester B. Portly as Eddy Woodward
Jason Sholtis as Francis La Cava

Nonplayer Characters:
Ted Cassidy as Eezaya
Mutant driver
Various tribesfolk

Synopsis: The Kreeg War Wheel attacks the conclave on the Rio Grande, but the astronauts and their ape friend strike back.

Commentary:
As heavily armored as a tank, the weapons of the astronauts are pretty much useless. Graves and Aurelius hatch a plan to tip the machine over with the grenades they acquired a few sessions back. From the back of a horse-sized mutant dog this doesn't go exactly smoothly, but is nonetheless sucessful enough in damaging the War Wheel to make it retreat.

Graves continues his alcohol-fueled heroism and tries to blow torch his way into one of the gun turrets. After evicting one of the mutants, he manages to damage the controls and crash the thing.

A mutant like the one Graves killed

Eezaya finally seemes impressed with the Men from the Sky and willing to listen to their suggestions.

Aurelius acquires a pistol (the astronauts hadn't been letting him have one before) and a helmet like this:

Wednesday Comics

No Storm update this week, instead here are a couple of recent comics related purchases I made:

Head Lopper is the story of a white-haired and bearded warrior who carries around the still living head of witch he decapitated, while he goes on a quest to kill a sorcerer for a queen. Headlopping is what he does best and there is a lot more decapitation along the way. This is fun fantasy comic with an interesting setting. I only wish their was more of it.

The Star Reach Companion is a history of an obscure, but in some ways, important part of comics history. The titular Star*Reach (1974-1976) was one of few anthology series that bridged the gap between underground comics and the mainstream. Featuring edgier work by known creators, it prefigured Heavy Metal and independent comics in general. This retrospective not only gives comprehensive coverage of Star Reach, but it also covers similar anthology series of the 70s.

What's Got this Alien So Surprised?

Could it be he's heard that Strange Stars OSR is now in layout? It's been a long time coming, (longer than I planned!) but I am happy to say I placed the manuscript and art in the hands of the very able Lester B. Portly this past weekend.

We're in the home stretch. Stay tune!

A Science Fantasy World

Art by Jason Sholtis

Here's a roundup of the posts I've done for a (as yet) nameless science fantasy world.

Two PC races statted for 5e:
Hwaopt: Smelly reptilian scholars
Hohmmkudhuk: Anteater folk.

Four Nonhuman races, not statted: The Skarzg, Ylthlaxu, Trell, and Ieldra

And some encounters/locales in that world:
"Aboard the Aureate Majestrix on the Occasion of the Panarch's Anniversary"
"In the Vicinity of the Unthran Wood"
"More Descriptions for Hypothetical Hexes"
"Three Descriptions in Need of Hexes"

Apes of the Southwest

Here's the map with some events labelled from my ongoing Planet of the Apes game. Of course, this old map contains cities and roads, none of which continue to exist in the 36th century.

Review the highlights of the campaign here.

Würm: First Look

The Kickstarter for the English translation of the French prehistoric rpg Würm dropped yesterday. I haven't had time for more than brief flip-through but it seems pretty cool. Here are not observations:

• The art is at times a bit on the cartoony side (it reminds me a bit of some Franco-Belgian comic art), but is "realistic" in what it depicts, not pulpy. No Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C. lookalikes. Neanderthals get a lot of depiction and as protagonists, not brutish adversaries.
• The mechanics related to hunting, tracking, and killing are as robust as combat is in most rpgs. There is a "Butchering" roll and a "Skinning" roll, apparently--and cool features like this: "If eaten raw in the moments following the death of the animal, the liver of a killed mammal grants the one eating it the Strength connected to this kind of animal until next dawn. Note that this power only applies to mammals."
• "Magical" abilities of various sorts are discussed including Shamanism and "Sorcery" (the making of potions and ointments). There are also rules for handling relationships with spirits and curses.
• The monster section contains the usual prehistoric beasts (no dinosaurs), but also, somewhat surprisingly, some fantasy staples like dragons, a couple of types of giants, and spirits of the elements.

All and all, it looks interesting, and I'm glad I backed the Kickstarter.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: City of the Damned

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

Storm: City of the Damned (1982) (part 2)
(Dutch: Stad der Verdoemden)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Kelvin Gosnell

Through the device given him by the city's representative, Storm sees the fall of the 25th Century. The massive array of satellites around the Earth somehow  delivered a surged of deadly solar radiation through all the world's television sets and monitors. What few that were left in the ruins of society soon reverted to barbarism. If Storm returns to the past he will most likely die, but he stubbornly still intends to go.

The man reluctantly agrees to take Storm to Terminal One. On the way, he shows off the space and amenities of the city. When they pass a fire, he also gets to point out the robot emergency services directed by the central computer. Unfortunately, the robot transport breaks down. The building will be sealed to smother the fire, killing the people inside.

Storm and Ember rush to the rescue. Elsewhere a woman named Anor monitors the events. She is intriqued by Storm's behavior. She appears never to have seen "courage" before. Storm has a little girl in his arms, but the fire rages around him. Anor's unseen Master bids her to help him. She doesn't feel her powers are equal to the task, but she does as commanded.

Storm manages to jump to safety. The girl is safe, and Ember commends him on the rescue. For his part, Storm feels like he had some help in some way.

They travel on to Terminal One. The man shows Storm and Ember the central computer. All the important decisions for the city are made there. Before the man programs it to take Storm to the 25th century, Storm wants to ask it some questions. First off: What's the purpose of the city?

The computer tells him that after the barbarian invasion, the people of the city began to study humanity, to understand the setbacks that seem to periodically plague civilization. They studied evolution, then began to look toward man's future development. They began to look for and develop psychic powers. One subject developed telekinetic powers, but he couldn't control them and had to be atomized.

Storm questions the necessity of that action. The computer responds that it was not programmed for morality, only to protect the city. The computer then surprises Storm be making a request of him...

TO BE CONTINUED

Jovian Revelry

The most farflung civilized court of the Cosmos is that of Bethor, the convivial Oyarses of Jupiter. In the great hall of a domed palace bobbing in the variegated clouds, the revels are ceaseless, though the partcipants are everchanging.

Bethor himself is a laughing giant, bearded and ruddy-faced. His head is wreathed in laurel. The bejeweled cup in his hand is always full, despite the way he seems to heedlessly spill its contents with his gesticulations.

All the delights of the Cosmos find their way to Bethor's table: Mercurian wines, Venerian viands, the finest game meat of Earth. Beyond food and drink, entertainers of all sorts are invited by the monarch for his guests' pleasure--though the palace is hardly the full extent of diversions to be found close at hand.

Jupiter has many moons, and several of these host gambling houses, bordellos, and other places of pleasure. Small vessels flit between these worlds, but the more adventurous and properly accoutred travel betwixt in batwinged flying suits.

One of the most singular recreations is hunting leviathans, the great beasts that swim Jupiter's cloud depths. Hunters do not always come back alive, but all that do bring a tale with them. It is said that the only thing that may truly darken the mirth of Bethor is talk of Scarred Rahab, the greatest of the leviathans, in whose terrible pursuit Bethor is doomed to die in some remote future.

All the wealth of Jupiter is stored in coffers and compting houses are located on Io. Other great banks of the Cosmos also have houses there. Such wealth in one place might attract would-be thieves, but among the contingent of guards there is no less than a dragon--and the wrath of Bethor, who wields Jupiter's lighting, is not a thing to be trifled with.

Odious Uplands

The Operation Unfathomable Kickstarter is going strong! We reached the first stretch goal last we: Odious Uplands. This describes the upper world of Operation Unfathomable: Stonespear Province, Upper Mastodonia. There's a sample layout spread and more info on the Kickstarter page.

Here's a vaguely mid-Centory travel ad I made for it a while back:

New Alliances on the Planet of the Apes

"THE CONCLAVE" 

Player Characters:
Jeff Call as Brock Irving
Jarrett Crader as Aurelius
Billy Longino as Olsen Potter Graves
Lester B. Portly as Eddy Woodward
Jason Sholtis as Francis La Cava

Nonplayer Characters:
Ted Cassidy as Eezaya
Robert Sutton  as Kreeg Dog Rider
Frank Sorello as Kor-Tez
Jem of the Rey-Gonites
Various tribesfolk

Synopsis: While the astronauts and Aurelius are guests at a meeting of human tribes, the mutants make a surprise attack.

Commentary:
The PCs met Eezaya again (last seen back in Episode 2) and take part in a conclave of human tribes (both Tehi from the former Texas side of the Rio Grande and at least some Mehi from the Mexican side). The astronauts find the humans woefully unprepared in their estimation to take on a gorilla fort, which is their plan.

A mutant attack forestalls any consideration of deserting the humans for the moment.  The mutant raiders ride giant mastiffs like Darkseid's dog cavalry in The New Gods. I used the stats for the podog-rdiing Scarlet Knights from the Gamma World adventure The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand.

The mutants call themselves Kreeg. They are no doubt the descendants of the Kreeg mutants in the Planet Earth pilot. They have the same Klingon head bumps and purple uniforms.

In the end, the PC's glimpsed the Kreeg's secret weapon:

A war wheel, much like the one that plagued Blackhawk.

In Case You Forgot

The Operation Unfathomable Kickstarter is "go." Check it out and lend your support! The full list of stretch goals is now available.

Also, on an unrelated note, here's another one of my counter-factual covers, this one with art by Earl Norem:

Wednesday Comics: Storm: City of the Damned

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

Storm: City of the Damned (1982) (part 1)
(Dutch: Stad der Verdoemden)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Kelvin Gosnell

Following the events of the last chapter, Storm and Ember are riding the moving energy bridge across the Antarctic landscape. They hope it will take them to the location of the time machine. That hope is at least temporarily dashed as the bridge seems to dead in into a mountainside. The two jump to safety in the snow beneath and luckily enough find a door in the mountain before they freeze to death.

There is warm(er) clothing on the inside, some supplies--and a frozen body! The dead man has a letter in his hand. He was the last worker on Project Aleph. They tried to warn the outside world about something, but got no response. Storm had heard vague rumors of Project Aleph on his time, but he doesn't know what it was about.

Leaving that mystery behind, Storm and Ember ski into others. First the sky gets strange and there is a pink snow storm. Then, they see this:

They approach the base of the structure, but they can't get the doors to open. Ember just knocks, and an armored warrior on back of some dragon creature accosts them. Storm realizes the thing is a robot, and is able to deactivate it by cutting through the mount's tail. Suddenly, a beam of blue light strikes them. They are transported inside the city.

They are greeted by a man who welcomes and apologizes for the antiquated robot that threatened them. He reveals that the city has been following their progress. He knows they have come to find the time machine, but if they return to the past they will die in a few weeks. Rather than eleborate further, he leads them to their quarters that he has the computer furnish in late twentieth century.

Storm has had about enough delays and demands answers. The man tells Storm that he and his people are the descendants of those who fled the barbarians and their wars. They built this city as a safe haven. The isn't what Storm wants to know about: He wants to hear about the 25th Century. The man says its too horrorific to repeat, but he gives Storm a helmet where he can see the events directly from the central computer.

TO BE CONTINUED

Countdown to Unfathomable!

The Kickstarter launches in just a few hours!

OPERATION UNFATHOMABLE is an internally-consistent, gonzo funhouse that runs like a subterranean wilderness trek instead of a “down the 10 foot hall and kick in a door” affair. There are random elements aplenty to keep GMs guessing as well as players. No balanced encounters to be found here, but the clever setup allows low level characters to drop into the dungeon “deep end” and still have a chance of making it out alive—if they’re smart and wary.

OPERATION UNFATHOMABLE includes:

• Underworld Phenomena: Novel environmental hazards to challenge explorers like Horizontal Cave Lightning, Whirlwinds of Unbidden Transportation, Sudden Seismic Events, and many more!
• Fractious Factions: Enter a crossroads of Underworld civilization where combat is only one of the options (and often not always the wisest!) for dealing with its denizens. The PCs can make a temporary truce with Blind Antler Men or forge an unlikely alliance with the minions of Nul the Mindless God!
• Races, Weirdos and Chaos Godlings Galore: Over two dozen new creatures, from Batwinged Dwarfs to Shaggath Ka the Worm Sultan, malevolent…and even more malevolent!
• Near-Endless Adventure: Enough NPCs, encounters, and areas to explore to keep a campaign going well beyond the initial scenario.

On Venus

Wet where Mercury is desert and as fecund as that world is barren, Venus is covered by warm, shallow seas and dense, tropical forests. Its natives are women--or creatures in the semblance of women. They are seldom surpassed in all the Cosmos in beauty, if one can abide their inhumanly colorful skins and their hair the texture of flower petals. They go almost entirely naked and chastity is not counted a virtue among them.

There is a ruler on Venus, recognized by Earthly and Mercurian powers, called the Doge, who is always from another world. This title may be held by a man or woman, but in either case, the floral and lovely native Venerians are the Doge's solicitous wives or concubines. The Doge's identity is always hidden behind an ornate mask of that durable Venerian fungal matter that resembles teak. The ruler scarcely wears any more clothing than the Venerian women, save for the notable exception of an impressive phallocrypt, decorated and enlaided with gold, for public ceremonies.

A Doge’s rule lasts only a Venerian day, as measured by the fixed stars, which is hundreds of Earth days. When the sun sets, the Doge is taken by the Venerians into the forest and is seen no more.


I posted this before, but it's been nearly two years and it beared repeating with Luka Rejec's gourgeous art. It is a follow up to this post.

Get Ready to Enter the Weird Underworld

My Hydra Cooperative partners and I are getting ready to launch a Kickstarter on Monday, October 10, for Operation Unfathomable by writer and artist Jason "Dungeon Dozen" Sholtis. Readers of this blog no doubt know Jason's work and many of you will have no doubt read (and hopefully played) the original version of "Operation Unfathomable" from Knockspell #5. I got to play the original version at NTrpgcon, and I can tell you this expanded version is more of what makes the original so cool: more semi-gonzo weirdness, more underground sandbox, and more art by Jason. Plus, layout by Jez Gordon.

But wait! There's more. Hydra got together with Jason and cooked up a number of cool stretch goals. I've been working with Jason getting the Kickstarter page together. The video alone is going to be worth a small pledge, trust me!

Look for it come Monday.

Warlord Wednesday Flashback

It's Wednesday which means comics, but for years on this blog meant DC Comic's Warlord. Let's re-enter the lost world with flashback installment from almost 6 years ago today of my issue by issue examination of the series. The previous installments can be found here...

"Warpath"

Warlord (vol. 1) #30 (February 1980)

Written and Pencilled by Mike Grell; Inked by Vince Colletta

Synopsis: Morgan is riding to Shamballah through the borderlands between it and Thera, when he hears sounds suggestive of soldiers on the march. Knowing well the enmity between Thera and his wife’s city, he climbs into a tall tree to get a look. What he sees must be nearly the entire Theran garrison on the march--with their only possible destination Shamballah.

That’s when Morgan notices a more immediate danger--a jaguar on the branch next to him, ready to pounce. Morgan draws his knife and lunges first! He and the jaguar battle until they fall from the tree, with the cat getting the worst of it.

Morgan’s got to beat the army to Shamballah, but his horse has run off. He runs, hoping to cut across a swamp to save five miles. He dives into the water...right on top of a big aquatic reptile. He fights the creature, and almost escapes, but then it swallows him whole!

The Warlord’s not an easy meal. He cuts his way out of the creature with his sword. He looks back from the shore to see piranha devouring the corpse. He made it out just in time.

Morgan's not done with the derring-do yet. He starts racing along tree branches and swinging by vines, Tarzan-style. Ahead are the outlying settlements of Shamballah. Morgan has to warn them so they can mount some resistance to the coming attack.

His vine-swinging comes to a halt when the tree in front of him falls. He looks down to see a woodsman with an axe wondering what it is he’s doing. Morgan tells him about the approaching army. He says they have to raise an alarm among the outpost settlements.

The woodsman’s first thought is to warn his family, but Morgan says there isn’t time. The Therans won’t bother with one cottage. He promises to go back to his home with the woodsman once they’ve warned the outposts. The two split up, the woodsman going east and Morgan west. The man reminds Morgan that if anything happens to him, Morgan must warn his family.

After they warn the settlements, the two meet at the bridge across the great gorge, beyond which is the woodsman’s cottage--and the Theran army is upon them. Morgan tells the woodsman to go to his family, but leave him the axe. The woodsman says that Morgan’s either “a great fool or a great hero” as he leaves him to hold the bridge alone.

What Morgan can’t know is that family the woodsman is saving includes a little boy who is actually Joshua--Morgan’s own lost son, taken away by Deimos. Morgan unknowingly saves his own child as he fights an apparently doomed battle against an army.

His family safe, the woodsman releases logs into the river hoping to help Morgan. The logs tumble over the falls. Morgan leaps to safety as they smash the bridge, and take many of the Therans into the gorge.

They’ve beaten the Therans for now, but Morgan knows they’ll soon regroup. He has to get to the garrison at Shamballah to prepare them for total war.

Things to Notice:

• Morgan goes full on Tarzan, in what's possibly the most dangerous 5 miles his ever crossed.
• The peasant family raising Joshua hasn't sold the one-of-a-kind artifact (a wrist watch) the baby sports as an ornament.

Where It Comes From:

The first portion of this issue seems to be an homage to Tarzan.  Morgan engages in a lot of stereotypical Tarzan-esque activities: he fights a big cat with only a knife, fights a crocodile stand-in underwater, and swings on vines.  Morgan even references Johnny Weissmuller, probably the man most associated with the film version of Tarzan. 

The set piece of the issue, Morgan's stand on a narrow bridge armed with an axe was no doubt inspired by an event legend holds occurred at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on September 25, 1066.  The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that a giant Norse axemen held the narrow bridge for a time against the entire Saxon army.  He's said to have killed 40 Englishmen single-handed before he was brought down.

Valley of the Bugbears

What the bugbears look like if they weren't invisible

Our 5e Land of Azurth game continued last night. The party had passed through the so-called Black Pit into yet another strange, pocket world. This one was the mountain-ringed Valley of Vo., as they would soon discover.

They made their way to the crashed ship, along the way noting that they could see any birds in the odd fruit trees, despite hearing them. Near the great broken vessel, they were accosted by two voices--though the speakers were unseen, invisible. These were the gatherers Phanuvo and Gadrevo of the Vozerai. They filled the party in on the basics of their valley: invisible "bugbears" and the feud between their people and the Voyanki.

The party gets an audience with Learned One Hanivo. He isn't able to tell them much more than they've already heard: The dama-fruit makes all who eat it invisible. They know the ship carrying them crashed here long ago, but they do not know how long. They also don't know what world they originally came from. The one bit of useful information is that the Pyramidal Mountain on the otherside of the valley has a stairway inside that can take them out.

The group decides to talk with the Vozerai (who are more warlike and so, they reason, may know of some tips for fighting off the bugbears). Approaching the tail section, they encounter a young warrior who gets them a short audience with Shaman Vo Angra. The Vozerai are indeed more bellicose than the Voyanki, but equally ill-informed, and grudge-holding against their foes.

The party decides they'll have to just make a break for it. They make it most of the way across the valley, but then they encounter two bugbears. A vicious battle ensues, but both bears are killed. Dagmar suggests they skin them for fur for invisibility cloaks. A good idea, but the execution leaves them vulnerable to bugbear assault. A total of 3 approach at various points. One they drive off with some damage, and the other two they lure away with offal from the two carcasses. After harvesting one skin, they decide not to press their luck and make for the entrance to the mountain.

The Hungry Gods

A universe with "objective" morality as suggested by alignment in D&D has always been hard to operationalize without silliness.This has led to subsequent additions downplaying it and many groups ignoring it all together.

R. Scott Bakker's novels set in the Prince of Nothing and Aspect-Emperor series suggest a different take on deities, clerics, and alignment that might be useful in gritty, maybe even slightly horrific games. I guess it could be used anywhere really, but some of the implications lend themselves to those sort of settings. Anyway, here's an idea riffing off Bakker's ideas:

So first off, the metaphysical geography: Beyond the physical universe is the Outer Dark. Visitors might perceive planes or realms here due to local control of some being, but really all the heavens and hells are just different regions or aspects of the Outer Dark. This is where human souls go when people die, into the waiting grasp of demons and gods. The difference between the two is only one of power, not substance. All the beings of the Outer Dark feed off the emotions of human souls where it be in life or death. The gentlest of gods has the same diet as the cruelest of demons. Humans are their bread or cattle.

The gods' strategies from cultivating food varies according to their nature. Some gods are Compensatory Deities who reward the faithful with various afterlife paradises, while others are Punitive and are worshiped to placate them against punishing humans. A third group might be termed "Bellicose" because they like humans to strive in opposition to them. These might even damn humans for prayer. These inclinations could be matched to alignments--or perhaps alignment is a reflection of what sort of actions a given god wants humans to take?

In any case, no god is truly "good" in humanocentric terms, because what they ultimately care about is suffering in life leading to humans to develop strong emotions toward them, nourishing them mildly in life, and delivering an eternal repast in the afterlife. Pro-civilization gods encourage humans to prosper, but if humans were too prosperous they wouldn't come to the god with their prayers and bring their devotion.

Alignment then is just the particular set of rules by which the gods use to judge a human soul. It's perhaps unfair and nonsensical if examined too closely, but that's because its only a means to mark and trap human souls for the metaphysical reaping.

Monsters, Blood & Treasure

John M. Stater has released the monster manual for the second edition of his retroclonish Blood & Treasure (discussed, here). While the stat blocks are pretty universal, one might reasonably think if they already have the monster book for their clone of choice, why do they need another? Okay, the cover is awesome, but why else?

It is true that many of the monsters are the usual assortment of humanoids, dragons, demons, and devils, but there are a few SRD notables I haven't seen in any old school product before. There are some new creatures and interesting homages to non-SRD beasties, too, like the "we-don't-need-no-stinking-Modrons" Polyhedroids. All of these stat blocks and descriptions are old school short (I don't think there is a page with less than 2 monsters), it is much more lavishly illustrated than most basic, old school monster books in an array of styles from well-chosen public domain illustration to cartoony. The only downside is that audiences used to modern monster books pinups, these will seem small. All in all, these traits make it probably the most AD&D Monster Manual of monster books I have seen.

There are the usual encounter charts by terrain, plane, and level. There are quick rules for many monsters as PC races. The typical extras, in other words. There are also a handful of one page "mini-adventures," all short and flavorful. John is good at this sort of thing as his hexcrawls attest. I'm not the only one that thinks so.

If any of that sounds good to you, you should check it out. Certainly if you already have Blood & Treasure 2e, you'll want it.

Wandering the Planet of the Apes

"THE DESERT" 

Player Characters:
Jeff Call as Brock Irving
Jarrett Crader as Aurelius
Justin Davis as Conrad "Rip" Ripper
Lester B. Portly as Eddy Woodward
Jason Sholtis as Francis La Cava

Nonplayer Characters:
Morgan Farley as Ilpasa Elder
Gorilla Troopers
Ilpasa Tribesfolk

Synopsis: The astronauts and their chimpanzee friend set off across the desert in search of human tribes and discover hints of another enemy.

Commentary:
Leaving the Pax base at Carlsbad, the group was not completely certain of what particularly course south they should take. Eezaya had said his people lived along "the ancient border," but that was pretty nonspecific. They decided to return to their ship to survey from the air, even though they knew their fuel was low.

A roll on a slightly modified version of the X4: Master of the Desert Nomads random encounter table suggested an encounter with an enemy patrol: They found four gorilla troopers investigating the ship. As formulated a plan to deal with them, a strange mechanical sound and trail of black over the next hill got the gorilla's attention. They quickly rode off in pursuit.

Quickly, pre-packing the ship and taking off, the group wanted to see what the fuss was about. Flying low (burning more fuel) they saw a weird, smoke-belching contraption leveling an ape homestead little more than a mile from where they had landed. The gorillas rode toward it, but didn't get there until the thing had drove off into a wooded area in the direction of the Pecos River. The group debated whether to investigate that weirdness, but ultimately decided to fly on. The players that had been in the last session were concerned this was likely to be the mutants the Pax-droids had mentioned.

They fly out toward the west, looking for the Rio Grande. They find it and see what appear to be human settlements, based on the more primitive design. Landing at a flat part of the desert, Woodward doesn't get high enough on his piloting roll and winds up damaging one of the thrusters. It's probably repairable, though no one ever rolls to try and find out for certain.

Walking across the desert to the camp provokes another random encounter roll. This time a gorgon, for which a giant iguana is a good substitute.

LaCava reminds them all its herbivorous, and they give it wide berth.

The villagers are understandably wary, but hospitable (the flags on their flight suits help). There is a curious lack of warriors in their prime among them, which later they are told is due to the Mehi and their mutant allies.

The people call themselves the Patryot Nation and revere the ancient American flag and apparently the King James Bible. This particular tribe is the Ilpassa. Eezaya is of the more ape-hating Tehis.

The Ilpassa Elder they speak with is fatigued by their antics, but seems fooled by their passing off a spacesuit-clad Aurelius as their "grandfather."

In the end, the group isn't interested in the plight of the Ilpasa, and their fight with the mutants. They head out South along the river to find the Tehi.