The Multi-faceted Gnome

art by Filip Cerovecki

The gnomes of the distant future Earth known as the Planet of the Elves are dwarf-like beings of pure crystal. Not earthly beings, they are visitors from some elemental realm who came to this world long ago as colonists or explorers. They are contemplative folk, given to pondering the workings of the universe and uttering cryptic statements.  They have some sort of accord with the Mushroom Men, but often have some antipathy with the indiscriminate mining done by kobolds.

All gnomes ever encountered have appeared male.  Theere reproductive cycle is unknown but seems to involve rare elements and zealously guarded underground nests.

GNOMES
#App.: 1d8 AC: 2 HD: 3 Move: 60' Atks: 1 (1d6 or by weapon) Special: crystalline creature taking no damage from fire, cold, or electricity-based attacks.  Acid only does half-damage.  They are also magic resistant, making all saving throws against such at a +3. Sonic attacks do 1.5x damage. Gnomes can move through rock.

Belt of Vigor

Minor magic items are not uncommon in the City and its world.  These are typical of modern manufacture and not as powerful or as dangerous (mostly) as the magical equipment of adventurers.

The Health Belt was actually a girdle which ameliorated fatigue and bolstered the constitution.  It’s no surprise the primary use of this device is as an aid to amorous activity. Some adventurers use it to provide an extra bit of stamina and edge against poisons and shocks to the system.

[+2 bonus to Constitution and all that entails including hit points. These benefits last as long as the belt is worn, but wearing it longer than 3 hours is likely result in physical harm: 30% chance + 10% for every additional hour of a permanent Constitution loss of 1 point.]

Stuck in My Head

I keep thinking about a post-apocalyptic fantasy plus super-science game, played in FASERIP, maybe. Something like a well-known toy and cartoon property, but less kiddy: like the equivalent of Savage Sword of Conan to its Conan the Adventurer.

A world where the heroes are like this:

And they fight foes like this:

In situations like this:

Mushroom Men

The Mushroom men or Myconoids are strange humanoids that emerged on Earth in the ages after Man.  Treated with mistrust by dwarves for their pranksterism and purveyance of psychedelic drugs, they'e friends of the satyrs (and some elves) for those same reasons.

These fungal sapients appear as tiny humanoids (6 inches to around 1 foot in height) wearing wide-brimmed hats--actually their “caps.” Leaders among them tend to have red caps while most others have powder blue.  Leaders may also have fleshy tendrils that give the appearance of a beard.

Mushroom men emerge from their underground collectives to explore the surface, trade with other races, or perform odd rituals under the full moon. Myconids are living chemical factories. They generate powdery toxins which they can blow into the faces animal species to cause hallucinations and confusion on a failed saving throw. They can generate other sorts of mind-affecting spores (such as sleep, amnesia, or hypnotism), which the red caps among them may release into the area once per day.

Owing to their fungal biology, Mushroom Men are hard to kill, despite their small size. They get a +2 to all nonmagic saving throws (except fire related), are immune to poisons unless specifically designed for them, and are 25% magic resistant.

MUSHROOM MEN: #App. 2-12; Move 60’; AC 4 HD 1 Atks: 1 (various special like toxin effects)

Warlord Wednesday: Sins of the Father...Fate of the Son"

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"Sins of the Father...Fate of the Son" (part 1)

Warlord Annual #4 (1985)

Written by Cary Burkett; Penciled by Pat Broderick; Inked by Bob Smith.

Synopsis: A group of Bog Men looking for mates attacks a group of Shamballan refugees making their way to their Queen’s camp. This proves to be a miscalculation, as the refugees are being guarded by Travis Morgan, the Warlord.

Meanwhile, Ashir and Jennifer have become convinced that Tinder stole the gem contained the essence of the Evil One from the locked chest in which Jennifer had placed it.  She casts a spell to find him, but when they locate the boy he doesn’t have the gem. They realize that Chakka—Tinder’s too smart simian friend—must have it.

Morgan is relating to his wife, Tara, his recent adventures when their interrupted by a cry—a cry like “a mixture of animal pain and evil personified.”  He runs toward the caverns it came from, but Jennifer, Ashir, and Tinder have already beat him there.

They find Chakka hunched over the gem.   He turns:

The Evil One has Chakka and he transforms the poor creature’s body into a hooved, demonic form.  Jennifer’s magic is ineffective and is Morgan’s sword.  The Evil One remembers Morgan from his last defeat.  Last time, his link was a relatively easily destroyed book, but this time it’s a gem that he places in his forehead to keep out of their grasp.

He uses his power to stick our heroes to the ceiling, planning to toy with them later—if they don’t starve before he returns.  Using her magic jewels and the powers of concentration of the entire group, Jennifer is able to free them.

But one can they possibly defeat the Evil One?  Jennifer has been reading some old scrolls Faaldren brought her from Castle Deimos, and she has an idea.  It turns out the Evil One had an earlier incarnation than the one they destroyed previously.  An incarnation that subjugated that era of the Age of Wizards, until:

The three came together and used their skills to forge a magic sword:

Baroth, last of the legendary Dragon-Lords, used the sword to slay the Evil One.  In dying, the Evil One cursed the sword so that any wielding it would eventually be dominated by bloodlust.  The blade became known as the Hellfire Sword….The Hellfire Sword Morgan chunked into a lake back in issue #43, lest it dominate him!  A woman’s hand had reached up from the lake and taken the sword.

They need it back. Luckily, Jennifer has an idea where they might get it.  Tara is worried the curse will return, but Morgan points out they don’t have a choice.  Jennifer transports the two of them away with her magic.

TO BE CONTINUED

Things to Notice:

• Morgan and Shakira are riding the tricorns they got in the previous issue.

Notes:

The Age of Wizards we see in this issue seems more cod-Tolkienish than the more Wizards-esque Age of Wizard Kings from the Grell issues.

Let's Go to the Video...

In case you haven't see enough of me on video, here's another I chance.  I hosted a round table--this one between Evan, Jeremy, Richard and Robert, wherein they discuss their cool rpg settings in the science fantasy vein.

Check it out.  At least skim it for the good parts--and then check out their blogs.

Summer Reading

I’ve been building up a stack of new fiction that I ought to start getting around to reading. Here are a few I’ve got in the queue. If you’ve read any of them you can let me know what you think I ought to check out first.

My most recent purchase is the new novel by China Mieville. Railsea seems to be a riff on Moby Dick where giant moles are hunted by train on a (maybe) post-apocalyptic terrain crisscrossed by railroad tracks. An interesting setting idea, I think, and Mieville seldom disappoints in that regard.

I picked up Southern Gods by John Hornor Jacobs in Night Shade Books’ sale a few months back, but it had been on my mental list of books to buy for some time. It certainly seems Weird Adventures relevant: A Memphis DJ hires World War II vet Bull Ingram to find mysterious bluesman John Hastur, whose music (broadcast by a pirate radio station) is said to drive men insane and raise the dead.

Snake Moon (also from Night Shade) is by Ray Manzarek, formerly of The Doors. This one may be more Wampus Country that Weird Adventures--though the jacket keeps the plot a bit obscure. It involves a farmer leaving rural Tennessee in 1863, that much is clear. It’s called “a Civil War-era parable of Eden.” It’s got a Mike Mignola cover which probably was the main thing enticing me to by it.

So that’s it for now--though or Goolge+ Pulp Fantasy book club promises to inject some old favorites. And it’s only July.