Real Sandbox: Maps of Green Hell

Interested in a sandbox setting with wilderness and dungeons to explore? I’ve used the title "green hell" (borrowed from the 1940 film) for a fictional jungle land before, but this time I want to talk about the real deal--or at least one based in reality. Check out this somewhat fanciful map of the South American jungle--the Mato Grosso (“Thick Wood”):

A lot of cool stuff going on there. Some highlights:

• Unknown Mountains of Gold and Mystery - They had me at "gold."
• Unexplored Dangerous Territory - Obviously, explored enough to know its dangerous.
• Atlantean Hy-Brazilian Dead City - If Dead City weren’t adventure fodder enough, Atlantean ought to sweeten the mix, to say nothing of Hy-Brazilian.
• Strange “Cold” Light in Tower - Again the Hy-Brazilian Atlanteans are invoked for probably the most intriguing place on the map. And why is cold in quotation marks--so-called cold, perhaps? The mind boggles...

This is to say nothing of Indians in Roman style armor, headhunters, assorted glyphs, and the place where Fawcett vanished. It’s a whole jungle of adventure suitable for your fantasy or pulp game.

From the Mound

You never know what might be found in those ancient mounds doitting the Strange New World and perhaps other worlds, as well. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Eight giant (8-9 ft. tall) human-like skeletons in breast-plates and ornaments of a copper-like (but harder) metal. Armor is +1 but half the usual weight.  
2. 2d10 eggs that will hatch dungeon chickens if incubated.
3. A phantasmagoria magic lantern obviously of more recent manufacture than the mound itself.
4. Three partially buried skulls inscribed with mystical designs, which upon closer inspection are actually necrophidii.
5. The mummified corpses of 1d8 children of both sexes who were killed by ritual strangulation. They will rise as undead mummies on the first night of the new moon after excavation. 
6. A sarcophagi contain a person in strange, futuristic outfit. If the round, reflective glass helmet is removed it will reveal the apparently dead (but remarkably undecayed) body of one of the PCs at an advanced age.
7. A glass pyramid containing a Mantid Warrior-Nun, who is alert and active, but unable to escape.
8. A beautiful woman in ancient garb, who appears to be asleep. Approaching close enough to touch the woman (even if not actually doing so) will allow her to take possession of a victim’s body as per the magic jar spell. If successful, the victim’s soul enters a large gem in her regalia.
9. And so on... Any suggestions?

Murder Ballad

Happy Easter to everyone that celebrates it. :)

Now, on to darker topics....

In the world of the City, sometimes even songs can’t be trusted.

A man in a bar hears a bluesman sing a traditional ballad about a betrayal and the grim things that followed, and he goes and shoots his business partner. A housewife listens to an old record that spins a tale of woe about a wayward man and a woman’s revenge, and serves up a rat poison dinner to her husband.

What thaumaturgists know as a murder ballad is a malevolent alien presence which can hide within traditional songs recounting a murder. The exact song which conveys the entity or infection varies--perhaps even from one day to the next--but it may be that target individuals are somehow “marked” ahead of the performance and the song is chosen to maximize the chance of influence. What the entity ultimately desires is to induce the target to commit violent murder.

The performers who act as conduits for the ballads are called Murder Balladeers. At first, they’re unaware that they’re carriers of virulent murderousness, but over time the horrible true becomes clear. Early on they may turn to alcohol or drugs to escape the guilt, but eventually most either become corrupted willing participants or else take their own lives.

There are some stories that Murder Balladeers develop other music-based magical abilities over the time they carry the malefic influence, but this has not been verified.

Murder Ballad
Target is someone with angry or resentful feelings toward another--but not typically murderous feelings. The narrative of the song played will have elements that can vaguely relate to the target's present situation. A failed saving throw means the target’s anger and resentment will suddenly grow, and the target will attempt to murder object of his or her anger within whatever time frame is feasible (typically 24 hours). While the target is emotional, he or she is not without reason, so the attack will be as planful and calculated as the time permits. If the target is restrained or prevented from completing the attack for at least an hour, he or she receives a second saving throw. After 24 hours--or after a completed murder--the whole experience will seem dream-like to the target.  

Dispel magic cast during the song's performance will negate the murder ballad's effect, and protection from evil or the like will bar its influence.

Weird Adventures: City Neighborhoods Map

Here's more Weird Adventure's cartography courtesy of Anthony at Battleaxes and Beasties.  Here we have the neighborhood map of Empire Island, one of the City's Five Baronies and its heart. 

Only a few of these have been touched upon so far in the blog.  Barrow Island (13) is the home of the City's potter's field and the tale-spinning Barrow Men.  Solace (38) is the foremost Black folk enclave in the City.  The Financial District (2) is the location of Prosperity Plaza and the Colossi of Industry statues.  Hardluck (3), an impoverished mostly immigrant slum, is home to those lovable scamps "The Hardluck Hooligans."

As an added "bonus" (so you can see what Anthony had to contend with) here's my rough map of the neighborhood which he skillfully turned into the map above:

Lounge Lizards

Walk into a night-spot in Heliotrope or the City, or maybe even down in New Ylourgne, and you might unknowing rub shoulders with an ancient inhuman race. "Lounge Lizards," they’resometimes called derisively, but these sybaritic sophisticates have about as much in common with the various sorts of lizard-folk (gatormen, ciamen) as a movie star has with a skunk-ape. Unlike their brutish, reptilian country-cousins, they’re alluring creatures--but with a beauty alien to humanity--lithe, sensuous and gorgeously scaled.

They're great sorcerers who sometimes claim to have been the originators of the knowledge stolen by lost Meropis, or to have ruled the world of men’s apish ancestors--but they’re notorious liars, so there’s no way to know for certain. Some scholars link them to the Serpent in the Good Book, responsible for mankind’s exile from Paradise. Despite conspiratorial theories they probably don’t eat human flesh.  Probably. What's certain is that they're masters of magics of music, intoxication, sex, and illusion. They put their arts to use in their night world of jazz, liquor, and carnal pleasures--all in pursuit, supposedly, of some sort of mystical enlightenment.

Some former hangers-on of these serpent men (as they're also sometimes known) claim that they follow the pronouncements of a mad poet--the Lizard King--who performs at an endless party in his people’s ancient, underground temple. He recites in a husky, dream-darkened voice to the beat of bongos before enrapted human followers, swaying like charmed snakes before him.

Warlord Wednesday: Top Ten

Since issue #51 of Warlord was a reprint of issue #1, I thought I’d take this installment of Warlord Wednesday to look back over the series so far and pick my favorite issues. Here are my top ten, in chronological, rather than rank order:

First Issue Special #8: Where it all began. Maybe not the best story, but it establishes the essential Edgar Rice Burroughs elements: a fighting man from our world transported to another, and a beautiful princess to be won. I might also add, a figure of religion as a baddie in the form of Deimos.

 #3: Lizard Men cargo-cults, a ruined city of a more technologically advanced civilization, and a giant snake creature, make for great pulp adventure. And Machiste--tragically underused once he gets paired off with Mariah--in here in his prime.

 #10: A battle of the sexes with Morgan and Machiste versus Mariah in a race to the top of tower to win a magical artifact.

 #21: The culmination of a three-parter that is itself the culmination of the Second Deimos Saga that began in issue #15. Father against son with a tragic ending that will reverberate through the series until its very end in the most recent volume.

#22: Warlord playing Sword & Sorcery hero, drowning his sorrows in drink, and taking on a werebeast in a tower, where all is not as it seems.

#25: Still in Sword & Sorcery mode, Morgan turns mercenary, battles snow giants, and spars (with sword and quip) with Ashir, the second best thief in Skartaris.

 #38: Morgan’s daughter, Jennifer, comes to Skartaris. Not the most action-packed issue, but gives some insights into Morgan’s character and past.

#46: Morgan goes to the realm of death to save the soul of Shakira!

#48: Morgan and Shakira have one of their usual arguments, and Shakira’s proven right as Morgan attempts to play hero and stop a human sacrifice where all is not as it first appears.  Includes one of the series most clever reminders of the relationship between Skartaris and the Outer Earth.

 #50: The entire supporting cast appears for a “final” showdown with Deimos. It could be subtitled “revenge is a dish best served cold.”

Curiosities and Eccentric Diseases

Internet browsing yesterday revealed that Jeff VanderMeer has edited a new collection bearing the name of the obscure scholar Thackery T. Lambshead--The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities--which is to be released in June. This is VanderMeer’s second involvement with a Lambshead work, the first being 2005’s The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases, Complete with Illuminating Illustrations. This first work, and no doubt the upcoming one, should be of interest to aficionados of the weird and to gamemasters wishing to add a bit of weirdness to their game.

The diseases described are a diverse lot.  Michael Moorcock describes Samoan Giant Rat Bite Fever in a Victorian idiom. Alan Moore elucidates Fuseli’s Disease--a skin ailment occurring (and spreading) in dreams. Jay Lake discusses Mongolian Death Worm Infestation. One of the best is VanderMeer’s own article on Tian-Shan Gobi Assimilation--a creepy and Lovecraftian disorder of involving fungus (calling to mind VanderMeer’s Ambergris novels).

Maybe they all should have heeded the implicit warning of Neil Gaiman’s entry--Diseasemaker’s Croup.

Obviously, a good bit of fun is had by all--which includes (in addition to those above) Cory Doctorow, K.J. Bishop, China Mieville, and Rachel Pollack--and many more. I expect the same sort of good things from the new book which promises an even longer list of writers and illustrators.

Check ‘em out, so next time you’re feeling hypochondriacal you can think you have something really interesting.