Three Years, Three Skulls

I completely forgot that December marked this blog's third anniversary. Where does the time go?

Thanks to everyone who's been a reader and a supporter.  To commemorate the occasion, here are three of my most popular posts over the past year:

Here's an unusual monster in the form of the Night Nurses. Or you might want to revisit my discussion of using famous monsters of filmland in unfamiliar contexts in "Monster Mashup." Finally, you can check out one of my Hell's Hoods series and learn all about Moloch, "The Bull."

Want A Science Fiction Adventure?

Last night I ran my first Starships & Spacemen: Star Trek game. Rather than do a post-play write-up, I thought it would be more interesting and maybe useful for people to turn it into a sort of mini-module. 

So here it is.

It's suitable for any science fiction game, really, but assumes Star Trekian universe.

Pirates of Orion

Here’s another Star Trek species for Starships & Spacemen:

ORIONS
Encountered: 2d4 (5d10)
Movement: 120 (40’)
Intelligence: Average
Psionic Potential: 2d4 (inactive)
Hits: 1d8
Armor: -1
Combat Skill: 12
Save: L1
Attacks: 1
Damage: By weapon
Morale: 8
XP: 10
The Orions are an ancient, multi-species society engaged in legitimate trade--but also involved in numerous criminal enterprises including piracy and slave-trading. Their most infamous commodity are the “Orion slave girls” or “Orion animal women,” members of a green-skinned humanoid species exploited by the more advanced members of the Orion congeries.

The dominate Orion species has pale blue to chalk white skins. They employ disruptor weapons and fly fast, stealthy starships. 

Warlord Wednesday: Though Fiends Destroy Me!

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...

"Though Fiends Destroy Me!"

Warlord #113 (January 1987)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Art by Ron Randall

Synopsis: Shakira’s gathering firewood in a gloomy forest. She’s miffed at Morgan’s behavior ever since Mariah showed up. The two have been lovey dovey all the time, and it’s irritating her.

What bugs her even more is a tribe of cylopses that chase her back to camp, screaming for Morgan.

Meanwhile, leagues away, Tara (Morgan’s wife) plays nurse to the elderly Jennifer, reminding us of what the Morgan’s Quest storyline is about anyway: Morgan is looking for a cure for his daughter (by his first marriage) who was magically cursed with aging. What’s worse, the zone of aging has begun expanding from the meadow where Jennifer was found toward the city of Shamballah.

Morgan and friends quickly defeat the cyclops tribe. Then, Morgan and Mariah are quickly back to making out, and Shakira to being disgusted. What would digust Shakira even more if she knew is that Morgan’s new attraction to Mariah is all due to a magic love amulet.

While that’s going on, in a “agless edifice of otherwordly desgin overlooking the Greenfire Sea” a wizard peers into his smoking dish. He’s worried that evil forces from a tenth and previously unknown plane are out to get the one man who can save Skartaris from a coming threat. That man (of course) is the Warlord. The wizard hopes Morgan and his companions arrive soon.

In Kiro, King Machiste is having a conversation with a wizard:

The wizard tells Machiste he cast a spell to transport Mariah to the side of her beloved! Wrong answer.

In our world, Redmond, the CIA agent Morgan evaded in the Yucatan, is still trying to figure out what was going on. He “renditions” Doug Andrews (the hapless tourist Morgan saved from high tech Mayans) to get answers.

Finally (after 14 issues), Morgan and his gang reach the Greenfire Sea.

They don’t have long to bask in that accomplishment, as a flock of gargoyle creatures swoop down on them. Oh, and they’re gargoyle creatures that shoot energy beams out of their eyes! Luckily, our heroes have a protector: The wizard uses his power to block the gargoyle rays.

One of the creatures snatches up Mariah. Morgan throws Shakira his gun, then leaps at the creature with a action hero quip:

They manage to jump to safety as the creature falls into the Greenfire.

Morgan’s safe and the wizard’s relieved--but then a group of beam-shooting garogyles swoop down on him!

When Morgan and the others arrive at the tower, they find no wizard V’Zarr Hagar-Zinn. The place is trashed and there’s fresh blood on the floor--perhaps only an hour old, according to Mariah. Shakira angrily says they could have been here an hour earlier if Morgan and Mariah hadn’t been acting all hormonal.

Their argument is cut short by a peal of villainous laughter.

Things to Notice:

• For some reason, Fleisher holds off on identifying V'Zarr Hagar-Zinn until the very end.
• This is the last issue where before the DC Universe invades Skartaris. Next issue is a Legends crossover.

Where it Comes From:
The events of this issue and the last one reset the love triangle between Morgan, Mariah, and Machiste--though this time with Morgan as a love-drugged participant.

IN SPACE!

Is it just me, or wouldn't the races and some of the setting elements of Talislanta translate well to a space opera milieu? Probably some of that is the exotic skin colors and mostly humanoid forms certainly seem like TV and movie space opera, at least.

So, this is what it could look like: the Galactic Empire of the Archaeans (or maybe, humans) was destroyed in the Great Disaster. A time of darkness followed, but now a New Age of progress is under way. Pockets of civilizations are expanding out into the stars. These new civilizations include:

• The Alliance of Seven Worlds: A confederation of the planets Astar, Cymril, Durne, Kasmir, Sindar, Taz, and Vardune.
• The Quan Empire: A territory conquered by a race of warriors, now fallen into indolence. It's subjects include the warrior Kang, the spiritual Mandala, and the technically skilled Vajra.
• The Instrumentality of Aa: An oppressive, theocratic regimen, at war with an offshoot of their race known as the Zandir.

Then of course, there are the independent races and worlds. Everybody takes shore leave on the pleasure planet of Thaecia. Nagra and Jaka bounty hunters chase criminals all of the galaxy. Then, their are the Imrian slavers, dealing in Batrean slave girls.

Works pretty well, doesn't it?

The Little Guys

For Starships & Spacemen, here's another obscure species from Star Trek:

ITHENITES
Requirements: None
Ability Adjustments: STR -1
Skill Adjustments: Contact +1
Metabolism: Copper Based

Ithenites are dwarf-like, metallic bronze-skinned humanoids from the planet Orodanga in the 61 Virginis system. They call themselves “Dayen.”  They have been longtime members of the Federation, joining shortly after it’s founding.

The Ithenites are a wide-ranging species, often encountered in small enclaves on the more cosmopolitan worlds. No one knows how long they have been a spacefaring culture--certainly for longer than most prominent Federation species. They have never been involved in any protracted conflicts with other species and have the uncanny ability to avoid offending either side in times of disagreement.

Ithenites are generally considered affable and easy-going, and are widely known for their love of good music, food, and drink--though they seldom over-indulge. Outside of the hospitality and entertainment industries, they are mainly encountered as traders. They're noted to be shrewd dealers, but considered fair and pleasant to haggle with.

Notes: These coppery skinned dwarfs were unnamed delegates at the Babel Conference in TOS episode “Journey to Babel.” An unfilmed scene from the script for the Enterprise episode “Terra Prime” called an ambassador resembling the characters from TOS “Ithenites.” The first mention of Ithenites was in the episode “Azati Prime.” An article for the FASA Trek rpg in Stardate Magazine #11 named this species “Dayen.”

Classic Space Opera

In getting the creative juices flowing for some Star Trek gaming--and also thinking about doing some more Pulp Space posts--I've been reading some old school pulp era Space Opera. While (as anybody who reads this blog regularly knows) I'm a big fan of the pulps, I'm not as versed in science fiction pulp stories.  I figured it was time to remedy that.

I picked up Best of Edmond Hamilton in digital edition. I haven't read any of it yet, but I did snag a story by Hamilton from Project Gutenberg called "The World with a Thousand Moons" from Amazing Stories. That story has a spacecraft full of rich kids at play getting commandeered to rescue a dastardly space pirate and his crew from where they've crashed on an asteroid inhabited by nervous system-controlling parasitic insect-things.

Following the pattern of "writer whose wife I'm a big fan of," I also got the collection of Henry Kuttner stories, Thunder in the Void. I've only read a couple of stories so far, but they've been good ones with all the pulp flavor one could ask for. "Raider of Spaceways" has the son of the President of the Americas (who happens to be slumming it as a farmer on Venus) take on a space pirate and a deadly entity from Venus's eternally dark side. In "Thunder in the Void," a wrongly convicted man is broken out of a prison in Antarctica to take part in a daring raid to steal radium fuel. It's daring because space travel is certain death (thanks to xenophobic entities on Pluto) without the protection of a race of energy beings. When the heist goes wrong, and the Plutonian menace strikes someone close to him, our hero goes on a seemingly suicidal assault against that distance world!

What I've read so far has made me interested in reading more. The stories from both these authors really move--and though they both lack their respect wive's subtler hands with mood and character, Kuttner and Hamilton write stories with cool ideas.