Found in a Shoebox

Cataloging of a deceased adventurer’s belongings revealed a shoebox full of assorted old photos.  A few held more than sentimental interest:

The Dark Manor
The most dangerous photo of the lot.  If stared at during night, the photo may open a portal to the pictured manor in a strange demi-realm shrouded in mist and populated by people who appeared to come from a gothic horror yarn. Anyone transported to the realm will be there for 24 hours on earth--though the exact time in the demi-realm is variable: anything from one night to a two weeks.

The Gold Women

A set of automata construct by a Staarkish thaumaturgist two centuries ago.  They disappeared from a private collection in Lutha during the Great War.  This photo has an address in Metropolis written on the back of it.

The Succubus
Naughty postcard from roughly 40 years ago.  It can be used to summon a succubus once per week if the incantation written on back is read and a few drops of the summoners blood (or other body fluid) is spilled into a circle draw on the floor.

Medieval or Other?

While D&D is a mishmash of various (and often disparate) elements, as written its base is the European Middle Ages. This is true of most fantasy games that have could after it.

Of course, that’s not the only way to go. Supplements have been published that pushed the game back into the ancient world (Imperial Rome, the time of the Old Testament, etc.) and forward into Renaissance and the world of gunpowder. None of these options require too much chance to the basics of the game.

I don’t know if anyone else has this problem, but I have a hard time choosing at times. Solomon Kane and the world of Warhammer Fantasy have their appeal. So does the ancient Rome of Tierney’s Simon of Gitta, or the Hellenistic era of Leiber’s "Adept’s Gambit." And in between the two Robin Hood and many of the historical actioners of Robert E. Howard have an attraction all their own.

I know most fantasy settings are a bit of a anachronistic hodge-podge: one can put together elements from several different time periods. Howard’s Hyborian Age allows Conan to fight Picts (American Indians) on the frontier and a wizard from Stygia (ancient Egypt). Still, Conan’s world seems mostly Medieval; Howard had to make a choice of sorts and so does every GM making up a setting.
Like I say, sometimes that’s tough, at least for me.  Choosing one door closes off others.  Anybody else have this difficult? Or do you have a favorite era that you seldom stray from?

One WaRPed Character

Last night, part of the gaming crew met in virtual for a character creation session for our new Weird Adventures game using the WaRP system.  Tim and Chris recreated their previous Lorefinder characters using the new rules set.  As I expected, the only step even the slightest bit difficult was just getting into the mindset of the system--the actually creation part was very easy.  Here's Chris's Don Diabolico--Gentleman Thief:

Traits:
Gentleman Thief (dapper clothes, shifty eyes) - 4
Good shot with a Pistol (steady grip) - 3
Skilled Driver (calm behind the wheel) - 3

Flaw:
Greedy (covetous gaze)

Motivation: 
Get rich or die trying

Secret:
In debt to the Hell Syndicate

Equipment: Natty attire, swordcane, concealable pistol, gloves.

Warlord Wednesday: Nightmare Prelude

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...

"Nightmare Prelude!"

Warlord #96 (August 1985)

Written by Cary Burkett; Art by Rick Stasi; Inks by Bill Collins.

Synopsis: In the Shamballan camp at the Great Fire Mountain, Jennifer casts a spell to bring Machiste and Mariah from the ancient Age of Wizard-Kings to the present. Those two disappear from that era mid-chess game leaving Mungo Ironhand perplexed.

Morgan explains to his newly arrived friends that a war is coming and he needs their help.  The three wander off, giving Jennifer the opportunity to cast another spell to find the now missing Tinder.  Unfortunately, Mungo’s trying to cast a reversal spell to get Mariah and Machiste back.  The two spells get crossed up and Tinder winds up in the past.

Elsewhere, Tara shares a per usual tense exchange with her old friend (and one time lover) Graemore the minstrel.  After his talk with Tara, Graemore goes off to strum his lute alone, and accidentally winds up eavesdropping on Morgan revealing his plans for a sneak attack:

Mariah discovers Graemore and takes him for a spy.

Morgan intervenes and introduces him properly. Mariah was right in suspecting a spy in their midst, though:  A raven takes flight from a branch overhead.

Meanwhile in the capital of New Atlantis, a Vashek assassin has an audience with the Wizard-King,  who is mostly hidden from our view. The failure to kill the Warlord requires a new strategy. The Wizard-King will send a nightmare to cause him to despair and weaken spiritually and mentally. Then the assassin’s will be able to kill him.  A blood red cloud flows from the palace and into the sky, seeking its prey.

In the Bloodrock Mountains, Lord Sabertooth gets a visit from the witch, Saaba.  Transforming from her raven form, she tells him about Morgan’s plans.  Sabertooth is angry at being duped into combing the mountains looking for a nonexistent enemy camp, and hungry for revenge.  Saaba, desiring above all to see Morgan defeated, sweeps up Sabertooth in a whirlwind to transport him to Shamballah ,so he can prepare a surprise for the Warlord and friends.

That night, the Wizard-King’s nightmare does its work. Morgan dreams of slaying Vashek assassins, only to have them revealed to be his friends and family beneath their masks. The sexy personification of death he met before appears and reminds him that he serves her. Morgan wakes up in a sweat and walks out in the night to sit alone. He wonders if he will lead people to their death because he is cursed to destroy everything he holds dear.

The next morning, the plan begins.  Morgan, Trogero , Scarhart and a small force of soldiers enter the caves leading to the ancient complex beneath Shamballah. When they reach the complex, Trogero is felled by a crossbow bolt!

Lord Sabertooth and a group of New Atlantean soldiers wait in ambush!

Things to Notice:

• All the women look like bodybuilders in Stasi's art.
• The Danko riders are called unicorn riders here, despite their mounts obviously having three horns.
• The mysterious Wizard-King of New Atlantis is mentioned for the first time.
• Krystovar comments that in the coming battle he might unknowingly kill his brother who has been turned into a beast-man by the New Atlanteans.  Foreshadowing, perhaps?

Where It Comes From:
The underground passage and the computer complex where the ambush occurs first appeared in issue #15.

The female personification of death first appeared in issue #14. Morgan found out her name is "Azrael" and entered her realm to save Shakira in issue #46.  See the commentary on those issues for more.

Adventuring in Style

Adventurers call it “crawling” for a reason: most of the underground places they go into seeking treasure can be a bit cramped.  Outside of the City though, in more remote places, the wilderness and the subterranean structures under it may allow adventurers other means of travel than their own two feet.

The modified automobile above was built by Hamish Littlejon for himself and his companions. It’s structure was reinforced by the application of magical sigils--but duration of the enhanced protection that these provided was never fully field tested. The engine was likewise thaumaturgically enhanced and was twice as efficient as a mundane automobile's.

Littlejon and his entire party disappeared on a trip to the Spine of the Dragon Mountains in Asciana.  The vehicle was undamaged and still full of provisions when it was found.  Milo Munsen, owner of the “Life of Fantastic Danger” Museum, purchased it and made arrangements to have it shipped to the City, but it never arrived.  All attempts to locate the vehicle since have failed.

Audience with A Dragon

I'm having intermittent internet connectivity problems, but it's working at the moment.  Long enough for me to post this illustration of an adventuring group in the eldritch future of the Planet of the Elves of an adventuring party in consultation with a smartly dressed dragon.

The art is by Bobby Timony who was the artist on the whimiscal, 1920s occult detective comic strip Night Owls for Zuda.

Primordial Ooze

Though the ideas advanced by Hamley are still denounced from pulpits, no scientist doubts the truth  of his transmutation theory.  This is in part due to the rediscovery of that wonder of phylogeny, the waggishly named Demiurge Island.

This island of the near antarctic South Tranquil Sea first entered history in the log of the Trysteran explorer, Caproni. Caproni noted the ring of high cliffs around the large isle but was unable to find a way to the island's interior.  The island was subsequently lost--and remains strangely hard to find to this day.  Still, later explorers have visited it and done what Caproni could not.

The unusual nature of the island is immediately apparent.  It’s home to a fantastically diverse array of wildlife, seemingly from all areas of history from primordial times to the advent of man.  While prehistoric survivors are sometimes found in remote places, seldom is the variety of species as great or the populations so small. This hints at the most startling of the island’s mysteries.

At the center of its great inland lake or lagoon, is a partially collapsed caldera.   On one side there’s a cavern which houses the strangest survivor of the dawn of life ever found. A gelatinous pool or mass resides in that cave.  This rippling and quivering gray protoplasmic thing disgorges half-formed, primitive organisms from its surface--both microscopic and macroscopic. These primordial creatures emerge from the slime and fall into the waters nearby and are swept out into the lake.  There they continue to develop and emerge from the water as the immature forms of any animal.  Few if any of the lifeforms on the island are products of the usual reproductive processes: they all emerge from the primordial ooze.

It is though that this mass of protoplasm might represent a remnant mass of what was once perhaps a fecund sea--and the origin of all life on Earth.  Scientists have at times tried to bring back some of this mass for study: to delve into the origins of life and to seek cures for human disease.  The conspiratorially-minded whisper that they have--and some of these samples have escaped (or worse, have been intentionally released) to spawn oozes, slimes, and malformed monsters.