Boris and the Spider

Our Weird Adventures campaign continued last night, with Dungeon of Signs Gustie subbing in for Chris Sims. After battling the automata last issue, the gang was more determined than ever to find the "heartstring" of the alien dodecahedron to deny the enemy the ability to bring the Machineries of Night back to life. 

While Hazzard worked on a psychic tracking device attuned to the Machineries' frequency, the gang took a key they found inside Carmody's automaton "Guy Friday," Laurence, and went to check out Carmody's Paladin Hill brownstone. There was a secret lab under the stairs (which the key opened). It was guarded by a spider-like automaton that shot lightning out of it's single eye!

There was no way past the spider. Luckily. Boris made a trick shot and disrupted the wall-mounted switch for the broadcast power.  With the spider down, they searched the room and found parts for a gynoid automaton (supporting their theory about Olimpia), the original manuscript of the Machineries of Night manifesto they first found at Atwill's place--and a golden, dendritic thing they took to be the heartstring.

After striking a deal to sell Carmody's revolutionary automata designs to Hazzard and giving him the heartstring for safe-keeping, the group headed uptown to Solace to see if they could meet with the man who defeated the Machineries of Night before: Mingus Rooke.

At his night-club, the Blue Hound, Rooke told them about the machine invasion of Hardluck: The Machineries of Night fell from the sky and used the people and things there as raw material to build more of itself.  It might have overrun the whole world, if Rooke hadn't blown the horn of the angel Gabriel and stopped it.

When pressed, he told them he knows where another angelic horn is: an apartment building right there in Solace! An apartment building in the grip of something evil...  

Warlord Wednesday: Stalkers of Shinnar

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...

"Stalkers of Shinnar"

Warlord #105 (May 1986)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Art by Ron Randall

Synopsis: Morgan’s quest to find the sorcery that can save Jennifer continues. He’s also still pondering the possible link between the alchemist he encountered with a penchant for changing women into were-cats and Shakira. (He’s not going to keep pondering this forever, trust me.) He snaps out of contemplation when Shakira returns and tells him there’s a warrior nearby being pursued by burly lizard men on weird mounts.

Morgan and Shakira charge in on the side of the human. His name is J’Huranda, and he’s not too shabby warrior in his own right. He saves Shakira when one of the lizards has a lasso around her neck. 

Soon, only two lizards are left and they're running away. J’Huranda is insistent they go after them and finish them off. The three give chase.  

Along the way, J’Huranda doesn't waste the opportunity to flirt with Shakira.  Morgan tries to keep the two focused on the task at hand.

At a fork in the road, they find a guy who was almost run down by the lizards.  He points out the way they went. After the three ride off, he heads down to a nearby stream where he happens to find a wounded man that is a double for J’Huranada.  Before dying, the warrior says: “He turned on me…took my—my…”

Meanwhile, a disguised Machiste and Mariah are at sea, still trying to get back to Kiro. In a heavy wind, the ship runs into some rocks and sinks. Our heroes have to climb aboard a piece of wreakage Titanic-style.

Then, when it seems things can’t get worse:

In Kiro, the usurper N’Dosma, believing Machiste dead, has assumed the throne.  He has a fake decree from Machiste blessing the whole thing. The people of Kiro aren’t all buying it, though.  N’Dosma’s go a bad reputation.

Back on the trail of the lizards, J’Huranda and Shakira are getting friendlier. Morgan is worried they don’t know much about this guy; Shakira accuses him of being jealous.

Coming into a canyon, the tracks suggest to Morgan the lizards have probably set up an ambush. The three decide to do a little ambushing of their own. They come up from behind where the lizards lie in wait.

J’Huranda swiftly kills one, but the other surrenders and tries to get Morgan to listen to him.  He keeps calling him “earthman.” Before he can tell Morgan more, J’Huranda throws a dagger in his back.

Morgan begins to confront the warrior, but J’Huranda doubles over with the pain he’s intermittently been having and goes to find Shakira to get some of those herbs she has.  Morgan is distracted by a weak cry from the dying lizard.

Shakira runs to the side of the staggering J’Huranda—who suddenly turns her!

The lizard is dead. Shakira comes up behind Morgan and says that it’s for the best. She says J’Huranda rode off now that the threat was done. Morgan isn’t fooled he puts his blade to her throat:

The creature attacks Morgan and starts to take his form. The two struggle, but Morgan puts two bullets in him. The thing starts to turn into a formless dough.  Shakira runs up and Morgan fills her in on what happened. The melichor was an alien creature that feed off the life energy of other creatures to length it’s life. The lizards were Stalkers from Shinnar—a task force sent to stop it.

The two ride away, glad the ordeal is over.  As they go, the a portion of the dough takes the form of a nearby caterpillar and kills the original…

Things to Notice:

• We get a couple of Skartarian names infested with that bane of fantasy nomeclature: the apostrophe.
• Shakira continues to wear a loincloth (like she did last issue) instead of her traditional fur bikini. Her sword seems to mysteriously appear and disappear.

Where it Comes From:
Good guy being less attractive than the bad guy is an old trope in science fiction--as is the shapechanging alien, of course.  Melichor and Shinnar are both surnames.

N'Dosma, the usurper in Kiro, may owe his name to "Sodosma" from the Clark Ashton Smith story "Empire of the Necromancers."

Cold Hands, Cold Heart

Rarely and for reasons unknown, a polar explorer or scientist working in refrigeration is exposed to the perfect cold of para-elemental ice and does not die. Instead, such an individual is infused with elemental essence and transformed into a Cold Man.

Though Cold Men radiate cold from within, they begin to weaken in above freezing temperatures. To survive for long in warmer climes, they require insulated clothing. Their transformation alters their appearance: Their skin becomes blue-tinged like ice and their hair turns white.  Personality changes occur, too; they become sociopaths--and often murderous ones with contempt for “warm-blooded" humanity.

Cold Men can damage living things with the intense cold of their touch.  The most dangerous ones are scientists who use their newly enhanced insights into cold to develop rods or guns through which they can focus and concentrate their cold into a deadly, freezing blast.

Cold Man
HD: 4  AC: 5  Attack: 1d6 (cold touch, or by weapon)  Special: Ice blast weapon (3d6, save for half dmg.), immunity from cold, double damage from fire.

WaRP stats:
Attack: 3 dice  Defense: 3 dice  Traits: Cold-based (immune to cold, radiates cold, susceptible to fire/heat) 4 dice; ice blast weapon (5 dice, 3 shots)  Flaw: requires insulated clothing or begins to weaken (add cumulative penalty die).

Previously...

Our Weird Adventures game got postponed another week.  So memories don't get dim during the hiatus, I thought I'd review where things stand with the major NPCs in this tale:

William Carmody: A brilliant scientist working on automata.  He was in possession of an alien artifact that appears to have been related to the Machineries of Night.  He's now a brain in a jar with a bad memory and a automaton caretaker.

Olimpia Kapec: Carmody's missing fiancee and lab assistant.  Maybe Carmody's would-be murderer's nabbed her?  So why can no trace of her be found except for a few photos?

Hew Hazzard: Aviation industrialist.  He helped our heroes fight off attacking automata. They could use an ally like.  Still, how far can they trust him?

Silas Atwill: Hazzard's chief of Automata Research--and secretly an acolyte of the cloaked and black armor wearing Master of the machine uprising. The Master disintegrated him rather than let him be captured.  He had a copy of a strange manifesto referencing the Machineries of Night in in his home.

Eisenmensch: Men made more (and perhaps less) than human in the service of their fatherland.  Some of these disgruntled cyborg veterans seem to have been recruited into the Master's cause: transforming all of humanity into machines.

Machineries of Night: Is this the black mass of tiny cogs and wheels beneath Greasy Lake?  The presence that seems to make the psychic Loone a bit queasy.  When the Machineries first invaded it took blowing Gabriel's heavenly horn to defeat them.  Is all they need the complete dodecahedron to live again?

The Master: Thin, with a hidden face and distorted voice. dark heart of the mystery...

Whispers in the Dark

Old houses and buildings sometimes become havens for the strange creatures called babblers.  People seldom get a good look at babblers: they're skilled at staying hidden, owing to their ability to contort and flatten their bodies and their chameleon-like power to blend into their surroundings.  What fragmentary descriptions exist suggest they are approximately three to three and a half feet tall and look like a scrawny cross between man, gecko, and frog. They have large, milky yellow eyes and many have strange ruins cut into their skins.

Babblers crawl up from--somewhere--to invade the crawlspaces or basements of buildings. They lurk in vents or even under beds.  From hidden places, the babblers whisper to their human victims.  Their utterances are jibberish--and that gives them their name.

Babblers tones seem to wheedling at first, then plaintive.  When this fails to achieve...whatever it is their after, They may attack in anger.  The cycle may take several nocturnal visitations over as much as a week.

Those that encounter babblers often develop a peculiar aphasia "the Jabber." How the jabber is transmitted is unclear. It may be through the babbler’s bite--certainly most who develop it are bitten--but it has been suggested that only close proximity to a babbler is necessary.  The mechanism is likewise unclear.

Those exposed get a saving throw. Failure means development of an aphasia within 2d6 hours based on the following table:

1-3: anomia - character is unable to remember names either of people or objects (except in general terms).
4-5: fluent aphasia - character is able to speak in a normal manner except that they use the wrong words, and perhaps even nonexistent words.
6-7: receptive aphasia - as above, except the character is also unable to make sense of the speech of others.
8-9: expressive aphasia - character has difficulty producing fluent speech. Words are pronounced with difficulty, in a halting manner, or with odd intonation.
10: global aphasia - The character is either unable to produce speech, repeats single words (perhaps in echo-like manner) or either occasionally shouts a single expletive.

Cure disease or the like will remove the illness, but otherwise it is permanent. in most cases (75% of the time) ability to read and write is preserved.

Babbler: #App.: 1-4, HD: 1, AC 6, Atk: 1 bite or claw (1d4), Special: stick to walls, chameleon skill, transmits "the jabber."

Warlord Wednesday: Dragon Skinner

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...

"Dragon Skinner"

Warlord #104 (April 1986)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Art by Ron Randall

Synopsis: Having reunited with Shakira, Morgan fills her (and the new reader) in on the aging curse that is afflicting his daughter Jennifer and on his quest to find the wizard that he hopes can save her.  Hearing a ruckus, the two go to investigate and find a bunch of guys shooting an orange allosaurus with a ballista.

It seems there’s a market for “dragon” skins as there’s “nothin’ them Kambuka scribes like better than to sheathe their scrolls in supple young dragon skins.”  Sounds vaguely naughty, doesn't it?  Well, Shakira doesn't like it:

One of them runs at her with an axe, but we don’t get to see her swordswomanship as Morgan intervenes with his pistol. After Morgan declines to sell his gun to the leader of the skinners, they slink off with the kills they have.

Morgan’s worried the baby allosaurs will die without their mother, but Shakira clues him on carnosaur parental practices and suggests the father will be a long soon to take care of them.

Meanwhile in Bakwele, Mariah and Machiste (disguised in priestly cloaks) book passage on a ship. The shipmaster, however, catches sight of Machiste’s unpriest-like mace-hand.

Elsewhere, Shakira is taking a dip in a pond while Morgan watches and wonders at why she didn’t say anything about him removing her collar (which she just picked up and put back on).

Morgan’s not the only one watching. The skinners are hiding near by. They think they can get a “king’s ransom in the slave marts of Kalibas” for Shakira.  The skinners get the jump on our heroes and take Morgan’s gun.  They force Shakira to change into cat-form and put her in a little cage.  Then, they shoot Morgan in the head! It looks like a glancing shot, but Morgan is out.  They steal his sword, too and leave him for dead.

Meanwhile, in a mansion in Kiro, the conspirators receive grisly “proof” that Machiste and Mariah are dead: two partially decomposed cadavers pulled from the river.  The ferryman who brought them in receives a bag of coin for his trouble.  As he assures the conspirators he’ll never show his face in Kiro again,the two men nod and smile, knowingly.

Later, the man is celebrating his hoax he pulled off on the two.  He opens the bag to get coin for a prostitute--and instead gets a viper biting him on the neck!

Morgan awakens bereft of weapons.  He pulls the ballista missile from the allosaur carcass, figuring that’s better than nothing.  At that moment, the male in the breeding pair shows up.  Morgan rides away quickly while the beast’s attentions are on his offspring.  Unfortunately, he doesn't get far down the trail before the carnosaur catches up to him.

Morgan’s chased to the edge of the cliff with only the missile to defend himself. The cliff gives way beneath them and man and dinosaur fall--but Morgan’s able to catch a hanging branch. The dinosaur lives, but it will take him awhile to climb out.

In the camp of the skinners, two of the gang decide to steal Morgan’s gun from the sleeping leader. The leader is not as asleep as he seems. He blows the two away. Morgan hears the sound and rides up on them. He punches the guy out and takes the gun. The leader tries to save his miserable life by buying Morgan off with the allosaurus tooth he wears around his neck. Then, he hears a roar behind him.  

The daddy allosaur is here! Morgan turns to shoot it:
 

The dinosaur charges--right past Morgan. It snatches up the leader of the skinners in its jaws. Morgan frees Shakira from the cage. He’s worried the allosaurus will charge them next, but the beast doesn’t.  He just stands and watches the two humans leave. Shakira hypothesizes that the dinosaur understands they never meant him or his mate any harm.  Morgan is skeptical...

Things to Notice:

• Again we see dinosaurs in the most prevalent Skartarian shade: orange.
• Since when does Shakira wear or use a sword?
• Apparently prostitutes in Kiro wear almost 19th century style undergarments.

Where it Comes From:
The dragon skinners in this episode are clearly meant to evoke the buffalo hunters of the American Old West.

Typhoid Mary

“Typhoid Mary” is one of the names given to women (typically young, and in unassuming professions) who become avatars for ancient and dread eikones, spirits of plague and contagion. These spirits are too old to have a voice of their own, and only the most deranged and saddest of cultists ever engage in their worship, but through a Typhoid Mary they still can let their presence be know.

Typically an avatar-to-be contracts some sort of dire infectious disease herself but for reasons unknown doesn't die.  The plague spirits transform her to a carrier instead. The illness that created her is not the only one a Typhoid Mary may spread; Through her life she may acquire more infections over time.

At the start, most Typhoid Marys are victims, as well.  Over time, the ancient whispers of the plague spirits and the horror of their existence takes its toll on their minds. They often become either willing accomplices or insane in their denial of truth of their existence.

Typhoid Marys are typically normal women other their ability to cause contagion (as per the spell with save at -2, except that a Mary need not touch someone to spread the contagion. If she wishes it, close proximity for a short time is enough.) and perhaps unusually hard to kill. An avatar who has fully embraced her role might exhibit healing, resistances, and immunities similar to a vampire.