Warlord Wednesday: Fire and Sword

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...

"Fire and Sword"

Warlord #99 (November 1985)

Written by Cary Burkett; Art by Andy Kubert; Inks by Pablo Marcos.

Synopsis: The Shamballans trudge through a swamp on the way to a new camp.  Their old camp has become too dangerous with the instability of the Fire Mountain volcano.  Morgan and Machiste scout the way.  The march is abruptly halted by a rise of a hydra creature from the muck.  Morgan predicts it will be hard to kill—and he’s right.  The thing drags him beneath the surface and almost drowns him before he slays the last head.

The group forms two camps. Machiste leads the group with the women and children, and Morgan leads the camp of soldiers.  When Krystovar asks what their next step is, Morgan (predictably, if nonsensically) says he’s going it only.  He intends to take out the big boss, Cykroth the Unholy, Wizard-King of New Atlantis, by himself.  He walks off alone to do some planning, but Krystovar and Jennifer decide to help him whether he wants them to or not.

Meanwhile, Tara is cooling off in a stream, when Graemore comes along doing the minstrel thing.  He’s heard that she stayed by his side while he was healing.  He leans in and kisses her.  Tara pushes him away.  He’s misunderstood.  He was her first love, and she’ll always care for him, but she loves Morgan.  Graemore, downcast, finally gets it.

In New Atlantis, Cykroth summons the chief of the Vashek assassins before him. He commands the warrior to take on a solo mission to find and kill Travis Morgan. He imbues the man with some of his wizardly power, making him grow bigger, stronger, and faster. He also summons a dragon for the warrior to ride.  The Vashek flies forth, following the psychic trail left by Morgan’s visit last issue.

Back in Skartaris, Krystovar and Jennifer are hard at work.  Krystovar pores over scrolls of Norrad he snagged in New Atlantis. Jennifer uses her power to probe Cykroth’s mystic defenses.  The wizard cyclops senses her and sends a blast back down the line, but in doing so, he inadvertently reveals something about the source of his power.

Sitting alone, Morgan is attacked surprised by a blast of fire from the assassin’s dragon mount. He gets off a few shots with his pistol, but to no effect.  He heads for the forest and manages to ambush the Vashek, wounding him.  Soon though, he’s forced to retreat again.  The man is too strong and too skillful.

Still, he notices that the dragon flies slower once the man was injured.  He surmises the two are linked in some way.  He sets up another ambush using his helmet on a stick as a lure.  He’s able to knock the warrior out of the sky, but soon he’s fighting defensively again.  Seeing the dragon coming in for an attack, Morgan takes a desperate gamble and positions himself between the two:

Link as they are, his foes are both destroyed.

Returning to camp, Morgan’s greeted by Krystovar and Jennifer.  Krystovar has discovered there’s another way into New Atlantis besides the sea route.  Jennifer has realized that Cykroth draws his power from his Atlantean subjects. Morgan stares at them for a moment, and comes to a realization, himself. Embracing them, he says they should go find the others and tell them what they’re going to do—together.

Things to Notice:   

• Why Morgan is intent on going it alone here isn't really clear. Residual effects of the spell banished last issue?
• Cykroth gets a sobriquet this issue ("the unholy") that hasn't been mentioned before.

Where It Comes From:
The title of this issue refers directly to the dragon-riding Vashek assassin.  The story seems mainly set-up for the big confrontation to come--giving Morgan and crew a way to get the upper hand over the Atlanteans.

The multiple-headed swamp monster is a reference to the Lernaean Hydra, a mult-headed reptillian monster of Greek myth, killed by Heracles in the second of his Twelve Labors.

Gimme Your Weird Adventures Contest

Back from Gen Con and ready to get to work on a long percolating idea: a companion to Weird Adventures.  To help lazy ol' me generate content, I’m turning to the time honored internet tradition of crowdsourcing--and sweetening the deal with a little competition.

Here’s what i’m looking for: give me your best adventure seed in the in the world of Weird Adventures.  Inspiration from the usual suspects (B-movies, pulp stories, comic books) is always appreciated, but whatever you think would work and highlights the fun elements of the setting. The seed can be for a sorter incidental

I want the entries in the following format:

Title: this should ideally be something pulpy and possibly hyperbolic.  The titles of the adventure seed boxed pieces in the book are good examples--and check out this old post on “weird menace” titles.
Tagline: a one sentence teaser like found on the contents page of some old pulp mags.
Set-up: a brief rundown of how the setting and situation of the adventure.
Highlights: a montage of the interesting/critical things in the adventure--important encounters, possible set-pieces, some evocative sensory fluff.

Ok, here’s a quick example:

“Burial On the Far Side of Hell”
An ancient plea brings the promise of riches and unimagined danger.
The Set-up: In a oddities museum, the PCs happen upon a Native mummy who puts out a psychic plea: “return me to my ancestral grounds for burial, and I'll show you the hidden riches of my people."  What the mummy does not know--and neither does anyone else--is that the road back now cuts through a dangerous stretch of badlands swallowed by a black dust elemental and crawling with black dust zombies.
Highlights: the fury of a malevolent storm; shambling,moaning zombies, all but invisible in the swirling, choking dust; an isolated town with desperate survivors are wholed up; a mad preacher fallen to worship of the demonic storm.

Easy! So give it your best shot. All of them I like will get included in the next Weird Adventures supplement (with full credit, of course), and everyone who’s entry makes the book will get a free pdf.  The best two entries will get either a $10 Amazon gift certificate or a hardcopy of Weird Adventures (whichever their preference).

All entries should be submitted by Monday September 17 at noon Eastern Time.  Email them to me at theinscrutabledr3 on gmail.

Game, Interrupted

Our Weird Adventures game got postponed last night, so we’ll have to wait another week to find out what happens in Westerly Mansion. 

Here’s a little background I sent the players earlier this week to tide you over:

"MANIAC CAPTURED! ELDRITCH VALLEY SLEEPS SAFELY AGAIN" (26 Swelter, 5887)
Tranquility has been restored to the usually quiet communities of the Eldritch Valley.  Fennix Orgo, the so-called 'Shrike' killer, has been apprehended by law enforcement and returned to the Blufton Sanitarium, where he is to spend the rest of his days.  Orgo was responsible for at least seven deaths by brutal, bestial means, including the murder of J. Wyllard by impalement--a grisly deed which earned him his nickname.

[from The City Inquirer - a little over one year ago]


I’m off to Gen Con today.  Maybe I’ll see some of you there!

Warlord Wednesday: From the Ashes

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...

"From the Ashes"

Warlord #98 (October 1985)

Written by Cary Burkett; Art by Andy Kubert; Inks by Pablo Marcos.

Synopsis: Winged reptile scavengers feed on the fallen from last issue's battle. Morgan rides out and scatters them with his sword and pistol. A dangerous thing to do, but Morgan feels the men deserve better than having their bones picked clean. Later, after Morgan’s had men gather the bodies, the survivors stand around a great funeral pyre.

Morgan goes to check on Graemore and finds Tara with him. “I couldn’t take losing you,” she tells her unconscious childhood friend. Morgan knows that if Graemore dies, he’ll be blamed. He finds Krystovar in the infirmary tent and tells him he’s got to save Graemore.

In frustration and guilt Morgan rides off on his own, but not before rebuffing Mariah who comes to urge him to provide leadership to the demoralized Shamballans. Morgan believes he can hear the personification of Death whisper to him that he will sacrifice everything he holds dear.

He hasn’t ridden far before another tremor occurs and unhorses him.

Briefly we turn to the Age of the Wizard-Kings where Mungo is trying to return Tinder to Skartaris. The spell doesn’t go as planned:

Mungo manages to restore the boy’s human form, but he still can’t send him back to home.

Morgan awakens in a cave with the mysterious old hermit he met in issue #90. The old man tells him the earthquakes here are a reflection of a crisis affecting all the planes of existence. There are men whose choices will be pivotal in these events—and Morgan is one of them.

Morgan denies the man’s words. He walks away--only to find the hermit again standing in his path. Next to the man is the glowing portal Morgan knows as the Eye of Truth (from issue #26). The old man tells him that that the demoralization he’s feeling seems to be due to dark sorcery. Only going into the eye will tell them for certain.

Morgan steps through. He sees a twisting path where death awaits him on the other end. The shades of his fallen friends appear, blaming him for their death. Before he can give in to despair, a voice tells Morgan to look deeper, and suddenly he sees the ghosts for what they really are:

He knows now he’s been duped. He cuts his way through the demons to the doorway at the end of the path. “Whoever you are,” he snarls, “I’m coming for you!”

He stands before death and sees her true face—a sight no other man has ever seen and lived. Then she’s gone, and Morgan faces a doorway to an abyss. He steps through and enters a throne room where we see the legs and feet of the Wizard-King of New Atlantis we’ve seen before. Then, Morgan sees his face:

Morgan attacks. Cykroth’s guards delay him long enough for the Wizard-King himself to fire off a blast, knocking Morgan back through the portal. The light around Morgan (the light of the eye of truth?) has weakened the sorcerous Cyclops and he calls for a Shamballan captive to be brought to him. He extends a clawed hand and drains the life force from the woman, leaving her a husk.

Morgan wakes up back where he fell after the tremor with Mariah fussing over him. Morgan gets to his feet. He has work to do. His sense of purpose has returned.

Back at camp Krystovar comes up excitedly and tells him it looks like Graemore is on the mend. Strange thing, though: at one point he thought he saw an old man standing over the minstrel, but when he looked again, there was no one there.

Things to Notice:   

• At least one tricorn rider survived from last issue.
• The Wizard-King of New Atlantis makes his first full apearance.

Where It Comes From:
Again, the mysterious earthquake in this issue is a reference to the greater upheaval going on in Crisis on Infinite Earths at the time of this issues publication.  The old hermit alludes to this fairly directly--and a editors note urges you to check out the "maxi-series."

Morgan encountered cyclopes back in issue #45, but Cykroth doesn't seem to be of the same ilk.

City Rumors

Here are some rumors (adventures hooks big and small) from the City by neighborhood:

Barrow Island: “Trouble’s brewing again between the Barrow Men and the ghouls.  Some adventurers killed some punk kid ghoul that wound up being connected to a muckety muck in Undertown.  The Barrow Men are looking for somebody to take the restitution they’re offering to the ghoul bosses.”

Yiantown: “Word has it that Tsan Chan has been replaced as head of the Five-Headed Dragon Society. No one knows who would have the moxie to pull off a coup like that, though.”

Grand Terminus District: “The Imperator Hotel is looking for a new night auditor and a house detective.  The last ones disappeared--they say--on a night when the hotel actually lost a room instead of it’s usual weirdness of growing and gaining 'em.”

Empire Park East: “Who’da thought it? Celebrity detective and perennial skirt-chaser Heward Kane seems to be smitten with the headmistress of the Mircalla Karnstein Finishing School for Young Ladies. It’s a bit odd.  She’s not hard on the eyes, but she’s a little bit more schoolmarm than the usual glamor girls Kane has on his arm.”

Hell’s Commot: “There’s a new crime lord in the Commots.  That’s right, lord--though people sometimes call him “the Mermaid.”  He operates out of the backroom of the Iceberg Club.  He ain’t human. He may not even be alive.”

Grimalkin Village: "Leland Throne runs an antiquarian book shop. He doesn't usual have magical tomes, but sometimes some stuff that deals with occult lore and related topics. People say Throne is also a bit of an amateur photographer--takes naughty pictures of girls for sell or trade with like-minded enthusiasts. Sometimes he gets a young lady with a rich family to pose for him, and he isn't above a little blackmail. His 'collection' might be worth quite a bit to the right people."

Opening the Doors of Perception

While mind-altering (and mind-expanding) chemicals have long been known to mankind, but there has been a prejudice against their therapeutic use by the church, science, and modern thaumaturgy.  In recent years, renegade scientists and alchemists have begun to catalog and experiment with these substances--and some maverick thaumaturgists have even begun to take notice.

These chemicals are often grouped under the name phantastica, but all fall into subcategories based on their effects on the mind and body.  While few engender the physical dependence observed with alcohol or various bootleg alchemicals, they can pose serious risks to the psyche.

The use of various phantastical mushrooms is of ancient vintage.  It has been suggested that the fruiting bodies of fungal sapients are among the most potent, and their widespread harvesting by primitive man drove these beings to near extinction and created enmity lasting to this day.

Mescaline (derived from several New World cacti) is one of the most widely studied phantastica. Some thaumaturgists have attesting to it aiding the early stages of magical research by increasing intuitive connections with the Planes Beyond.  Indeed, mescaline's only consistent thaumaturgical use is to aid in travel to the astral plane. Small doses have also been reported to allow a magical practitioner to see etheric or astral bodies.

Some phantastica come from the other planes themselves.  So-called “bug powder” sold in the astral waystation of Interzone, is a potentially dangerous example. Alchemists have work to isolate the essence of the astral moth for planar transport, but with little success.

A number of other sources of phantastica are currently under scientific investigation.  Adventurers report life-transforming visions from consumption of certain molds that grow in subterranean areas--often ones which are found near the “lairs” of certain slimes. Tincture of a distillate of ectoplasm is rumored to produce a dissociative state resembling catatonia, but allowing communication (one way) with spirits.    It has even been suggested that smoking the flakes or scraps of a lich (if one can acquire them) increases sorcerous potency for a period of hours to days, while slowing perceptions of time and heightening the senses.

It is the hope of many of researchers that the scientific study of these substances many usher in a new technological age. One perfectly integrating thaumaturgy and psychology through chemical means.

At Midnight

Weird Adventures resumed last night in the WaRP system. The gang was on hand for the reading of Old Cyrus Westerly’s will to his five (six if you count one’s daughter) hopeful heirs. The would-be heirs were unusual characters, and a couple seem to have past history. Given these dynamics, it was lucky that Don Diabolico and Boris were accompanied by Erskine Loone (The Grumpy Old Troll , Michael), psychologist and psychonaut, who turned an analytic eye on the clan.

Cyrus’s will gives his entire estate to Cordelia, the only surviving relative bearing his surname. The gang felt this immediately put a target on her back. But from whom? Matti Besant, the housekeeper, says spirits roam the house--the result of the diabolism of Curwen Westerly, Cyrus’s grandfather. Then, there’s an escaped homicidal maniac on the loose from a nearby sanitarium. Compared to those threats, jealous family members seem positively mundane.

Diabolico schemes! Boris scowls! Erskine expounds!  Will they be up to the task of protecting Cordelia Westerly from harm?

Stay tuned.