Hell's Hoods: Casino Infernale

Among the sinful (and dubious) pleasures of Hell are the gambling houses in its sprawling city of Dis. From every back alley dice game to high-class casino, these are owned by the Pluton family and run by the powerful capo, Asmodai. He also oversees the Hell Syndicate’s gambling interests on the Material Plane, bringing more souls to Hell's gates with the promise of riches.

Asmodai appears as a red-skinned, horned man whose good looks are spoiled by a almost perpetual leer. He dresses in the hippest of silk suits (also red). His voice is as smooth as any crooners--when he wants it to be.  He casts no shadow, but when he passes by, mortals hear fevered, whispering voices urging them to take chances, promising the big score.

Asmodai turns a pair of dice in his left hand, that he can tie to the fate of any mortal (with their consent--though not necessarily with full awareness of what they’re consenting to) for a single toss of perhaps life and death importance. He is said to be able manipulate fate on a small scale to make him difficult to kill in combat. His primary weakness is his own predilection for gambling: He finds it hard to pass on a bet.

Often seen in Hell’s ritziest casinos is a beautiful woman who appears to be made of gold. She moves gracefully amid the tables where chips redeemable for damned soul fragments are wagered, smiling (and even occasionally winking) at hard-eyed and sneering pit (fiend) bosses. This is Beleth, Asmodai’s moll. The old grimoires say her diabolic beauty has tempted men to blasphemy and murder, and not much seems to have changed. She can turn anything she touches to gold, and also return things to their original form at her whim. She’s chattier than most devils and is a good source of infernal gossip, if she takes a liking to you.

Beleth's velvet shadow is flecked with gold dancing like dust motes in a sunbeam.

Warlord Wednesday: Skartaris Unchained (part 2)

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...

"Skartaris Unchained"

Warlord #100 (December 1985)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Art by Adam Kubert.

Synopsis: Despite Morgan’s sudden appearance in his sanctum, Cykroth isn’t surprised for long.  He unleashes a succession of mystic blasts that send Morgan to the ground. They would have been deadly, if Jennifer wasn’t using her powers to shield her father. Cykroth figures this out and summons a giant snake to constrict Morgan and see just how powerful Jennifer is.

Meanwhile, Krystovar still holds the doorway, but he’s wound and tiring. He notices the lower legs of the centaur statues are cracked. He takes a metallic rope from the drapery and lassoes one of the statue’s legs.  As a mass of soldier’s rush at him, he pulls with all his might:

The passage is blocked but at the cost of Krystovar’s life.

Morgan’s still battling the serpent. His bullets and blade can’t harm it.  Morgan realizes it’s an illusion—the primal fear of serpents conjured from his mind.  He wills it out of existence and fires on his real enemy.  Cykroth laughs, seemingly impervious to the Warlord’s weapons.  Inwardly, he worries his energies may soon be depleted under the fierce warrior’s onslaught.

In Shamballah, Mariah raises the signal banner above the city, while Machiste and Shakira open the gates. Tara leads her army in, Braveheart-style: “For Shamballah! For Freedom!”

Lord Sabertooh orders the energy cannons to open fire, only to find they’ve all been sabotaged, courtesy of our heroes.

His shields weakening against Morgan’s attack, Cykroth begins to draw life-energy from his minions to save himself. In Shamballah, New Atlantean troops begin to visibly age and weaken before their foes.

If triumph seems close in Shamballah, Morgan has been put on the defensive in New Atlantis. The reinvigorated Cykroth manages to wound both Morgan and Jennifer with his blasts.  Morgan dodges blast after blast, but finally:

And Jennifer’s landing is hard:

Morgan has lost his magical protection! Still, he’s notices that Cykroth’s own protective aura drops briefly following every blast. If he can strike at the precise instant…Only now he manages to let Cykroth trap him in a corner of the room.  The next blast will kill him.

When, a wounded Graemore staggers into the room.  He calls out the cyclops—with predictably tragic results:

But he gives Morgan the opening he needs. Cykroth spins back toward his foe to get a blade in his only eye. The Wizard-King of New Atlantis dies.

In Shamballah, Lord Sabertooth sees his army falter as his best troops wither before his eyes. Perhaps only the beast-man transformation saved him that fate. Sabertooth doesn’t have much time to consider it, as Machiste drops from above.  The two do battle.

Shamballah has been retaken.  Tara surveys the battlefield. The Atlantean troops are decaying away, and Sabertooth:

A celebration is in preparation. They only wait for Morgan to return.  His battle won, he rides to check on his daughter.  He’s startled by what he finds:

Things to Notice:   

• After the passing of Scarhart and the death of Krystovar this issue, the cast is down to only Grell created characters.  It's almost as if things were being "reset" in some way.  Hmmmm...
• Of course, Graemore (a Grell era character) also dies this issue, ending forever the hinted but never quite materialized love triangle.

Notes:
The portrayal of Graemore in this issue (and indeed in the Burkett run that proceeded it) makes him a sensitive minstrel type.  In his early appearances, he was more of a man of action.

Burkett seems to have been setting up a confrontation between Krystovar and his beast-men converted brother.  The only likely suspect for his brother was Lord Saber-Tooth.  Unfortunately, Fleisher dispenses with that subplot and so we never find out.

Hell's Hoods: The Fat Man

The arch-devil Mammon is the lord of greed. He’s boss of the Pluton Family, which keeps the books for the entire Hell Syndicate and sees to the corrupting of mortal souls with avarice. Mammon has his meaty talons in loansharking, real estate schemes, gambling, and counterfeiting.


In this age, Mammon appears as a rotund, horned, oxblood-skinned humanoid in a banker’s suit. His scrawny legs might not be able to support his bulk, if it weren’t for the efforts of his small (yet obviously strong) wings. With them, he's as light on his feet as a ballerina, if the need arises. His flabby jowls are pockmarked. His golden eyes glint like dancing coins in the big score never obtained. He smells like old leather. His shadow is gray, swirling, and pungent as cigar smoke.

Combat: Mammon assiduously avoids combat whenever possible. If necessary, he uses his diabolic abilities below.

Diabolic Abilities: The infernal boss possesses a gilded pocket watch that can stop time in a room or small area for up to 3 minutes or cause a person to age 2-20 years. Turning any unit of currency in his hand, Mammon can fascinate a victim who fails a saving throw with dreams of avarice. He can only use this power once on any given individual. Mammon can tell the complete history of any piece of money he holds, including (in broadstrokes) the desires and goals (particularly sinful ones) of anyone who held it.

Pacts: Summoning Mammon involves heating a coin taken off a person recently dead in a sulfur flame until it burns the summoner’s hand. Mammon can unerring locate any item of monetary value anywhere on the material plane. He can magical alter any financial records to hide fraud or any financial related crime from the agents of Management. The most common reason Mammon is petitioned, however, is the acquire wealth--though this requires a faustian contract.

Magic and Science

In the chat Q&A and a couple email exchanges, I’ve gotten questions about the relationship of magic and science in the world of Weird Adventures.  It seemed like a good time to do a post to clarify, as the setting doesn’t follow the strong separation of the two seen in a number of other rpgs or fictional worlds.

In the City and its world, what people call “science” and “magic” are areas of knowledge which together describe a spectrum of phenomena (or perhaps, phenomena and noumena). Science deals with the material world (the Prime Material Plane, specifically) and repeatable observations about things within that world.  Magic, on the other hand, deals with the interaction of other planes with the Material Plane.  While thaumaturgical studies have certainly led to repeated observations, the performer of a magical experiment is linked to the results, and the forces involved are not always measurable or observable.  

In the dim past or the modern age, the two areas of knowledge have never been completely separate.  Briefly, here let’s look at the spectrum of disciplines leading to technology in the modern City, from strictly physical to most metaphysical:

Science: Humanity’s accumulated knowledge and understanding of the physical world, without account for noumenal forces or extraplanar interactions. The results of this knowledge have produced technology usable by all.

Alchemy: A field focused on the magical or metaphysical properties and interactions of physical substances.  The dividing line between chemistry and alchemy is blurry; various individual experiments or techniques make greater or lesser use of magical interactions.  Alchemy can lead to mass produced products, though these are perhaps not as stable or predictable as the chemistry of our world. 

Artifice: When alchemists moved into the production of homunculi, and thaumaturgists into fashioning automata, the artificer's art was born. Constructs or automata can be made in factories, but their power supplies and mechanical brains (if they have them) are fashioned by alchemical or thaumaturgic means. These techniques can produce devices that might be termed “super-science”--like death-rays or anti-gravity.  Because of the heavy thaumaturgic influence needed, these sorts of devices aren’t mass-producible at the current level of technology,and instead are the work of lone genius (or mad) inventors.

Magic: The ancient art of effecting change in the physical world by will, i.e. the application of forces and powers often extraplanar in origin and not really measurable or detectable (except in their effects) by current scientific means. Thaumaturgy has laws, but these can be idiosyncratic, and often make more intuitive sense than strictly reasonable.

Take a look at the Weird Adventures Index for posts dealing with examples of these technologies.

Relax and Enjoy

Nothing goes better with a good beer than updates to the Weird Adventures Index.

You can check out a few monsters you might have missed, including the gill-men, the oh so sweet (and oh so deadly) candy zombies,  and the undead weirdness of the swarm of husks.  If travel reading is more what your in the mood for, then how about an exotic locale like Demiurge Island?  If you'd rather stay closer to home, you can enjoy that good beer in the bar at the Capricorn Hotel.

Maybe you like travels of a more metaphorical nature?  Then let the doors of perception open your third eye through the use of weird psychedelics or take a no less harrowing trip down some adventurer's photographic memory lane with the contents found in a shoebox.

Brain Games

Last nights WaRP Weird Adventures game opened with Erskine Loone getting an odd letter from an old grad school friend, William Carmody. Our heroes--joined by the mentally deficient pugilist Big Lenny--went over to Carmody's lab to see what was going on.  They find what's left of Carmody in the basement--and he asks them to solve his murder!

Carmody, at this point, is a brain floating in a vat of nutrients.  Only his scientific genius (and his trusty automaton Laurence) kept him alive.  Unfortunately, the trauma of his death and transformation left him with a good deal of memory loss.  He doesn't know who killed him.

He's got an idea as to why, though.  He's been working with an alien artifact in the form of a large dodecahedron.  He believes this could revolutionize the automata field, and so does his business partner, the aviator and inventor, Hew Hazzard.  Maybe Hazzard wanted the new technology all to himself?

Or maybe it's "Waxy" Moldoon--the Hell Syndicate boss Carmody borrowed start-up money from--that killed him.  He might want to get his mits on a valuable dingus like that.

Two good suspects--but Diabolico always wants to pin it on a dame. The one at hand (or not) is Carmody's  fiancée and lab assistant, Olimpia. She's now disappeared and Carmody thinks the murderer kidnapped her, but he doesn't really remember.

While they're trying to piece all this together, one of Carmody's automata prototypes becomes active somehow and goes on a short rampage.  Loone cuts the broadcast power just before it can decapitate Diabolico.

It's their first case in their own office, and looks like "Team Victory" has some dangerous work ahead.

Programming note: I'll be doing a Weird Adventures Q&A tonight at 8:00pm Eastern on rpgnet IRC. To join:  Go to http://www.magicstar.net/chat2/, select your nick, login, and type "/join #rpgnet"

Warlord Wednesday: 100!

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...

"Skartaris Unchained"

Warlord #100 (December 1985)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Art by Adam Kubert.

Synopsis: Following the information they acquired from Norrad’s scrolls last issue, Morgan and Krystovar are canoeing down a river in a canyon toward a back entrance to New Atlantis. The way isn’t complete smooth. They’ve just discovered the handholds in the rock face that provide a way to climb to the entrance when a giant crab attacks them. Morgan manages to stab then thing in the and kill it, but it’s death-throes send him flying toward the cliff face. Incredibly, Morgan manages to grab the handholds and even reach down to give Krystovar a hand up out of the river.

Morgan and Krystovar scale the cliff face, only to find their way in blocked by metal bars!

In the camps, Machiste and Mariah prepare to ride out on their mission. They will raise a banner to signal Tara and the Shamballan army when they’ve completed it. They’re banking on Sabertooth not expecting a second assault on occupied Shamballah after their recent defeat there. Mariah wonders if Tara is really going to be able to lead the army to victory without Morgan. Machiste replies that Tara is not only a queen, but the second most fearless warrior in Skartaris—after her husband, the Warlord.

With some work, Morgan manages to pry one of the bars loose. He and Krystovar squeeze into the small passage. They find it opens into:

There are guards patrolling the area, but our heroes keep to the shadows and put them down quickly before they can raise an alarm.

In Shamballah, a veiled woman leads a donkey pulling a cart into the market. She passes the guards without arousing suspicious—or maybe not:

Still, Machiste and Shakira get the drop on him.

Elsewhere, Graemore, looking to prove himself, arrives at the secret entrance to New Atlantis. He follows the path taken by Morgan and Krystovar. The minstrel isn’t as stealthy, though, and winds up getting captured. The guards raise and alarm, and Morgan and Krystovar will soon be discovered!

The Shamballan crew goes about their mission. Shakira sneaks into the armory and gets control of an energy cannon, allowing them to take the whole place. Machiste uses a rope and a grappling hook to scale the palace walls and take out the guardsmen there.

Krystovar are swarmed by guards at an entrance to the throne room flanked by two centaur statues. There’s no way both of them will make it. Krystovar urges Morgan to go on and get Cykroth while he holds this chokepoint. Morgan is reluctant to go, by Kystovar convinces him it must be done for the good of Skartaris.

Elsewhere, Jennifer Morgan sense her father’s battle with Cykroth the Wizard-King is about to begin:

In his sanctum, Cykroth hears the tumult. He calls for his guards, but someone else answers him:

And the battle is joined!

To Be Contined

Things to Notice:   

• Mike Grell returns to the series he created with a great cover.
• After so long laying the foundation, the end of Burkett's New Atlantis saga is penned by Michael Fleisher.

Notes:
While it's uncertain, last issue seems to have been written to set up a quick solution to the whole New Atlantean saga.  There are events to come suggesting dropped storylines, as we'll soon see.

The statues in the "temple of human sacrifice" seem lazily (and perhaps offensively) close to statutes of real world Hindu deities.