Hunters

As fearsome as the ssraad are, there is one species that at least lone ssraad seem to fear: A race of bone pale monsters, the accursed and implacable enemies of the zurr. These monsters who monsters fear are known as the xann.

The xann [ksahn] claim to have been a peaceful species in the Zuran Expanse (before it had that name) whose habitats were destroyed by the zurr. Millions were killed, but refugees escaped. Taking shelter among other species, the xann refugees remained a people apart. They nursed their hate--and plotted revenge.

That's the popular story. The xann of today are chalk white-skinned, slim, almost delicate-appearing humans. They are never seen in groups larger than 3 or four. Often their children are abandoned to be raised by other sophonts. Xann hide their identities, to avoid being shunned by other species. No one who has heard the stories wants to be near a xann when the transformation occurs. 

Despite historical consensus that the zurr are an extinct cultured, the xann believe that a few of their enemies have passed their minds down through the ages, downloading them into new bodies. The xann believe they have the ability to detect them. They are a driven people, hunting the stars for these hidden zurr. When a xann finds a target (be it one of their secret zurr or a ssraad), he or she transforms into a hunter form, a monstrous, bioengineered killing machine.

The single-mindedness of the xann and their propensity for sudden violence have given them a negative reputation among other sophonts, but they aren't barred from any major ports or habitats. Most choose to keep a low profile, if only to better stalk their prey. Even when they don't die by violence, the xann tend to have shorter lifespans than other near human sophonts. The metabolic stress of their transformation takes a toll.

No. Appearing: 1-2
AC: 3
HD: 7
Saving Throw: 11
Attack Bonus: +8/+8/+6
Damage: 2d4/2d4 claws, 1d6 bite
Movement: 40’
Morale: 11
Special Abilities: They regenerate 2 hit points per round, starting after 2 rounds of combat. They possess the equivalent of the biopsionic power Invincible Stand.

Warlord Wednesday: Ballad Part 5

Here's another installment of my examination of  the adventures DC Comics' Travis Morgan--The Warlord.  The earlier installments can be found here...

"Ballad Part V"

Warlord (vol. 2) #5 (May 1992)

Written by Mike Grell; Art by Dameon Willich and Tim Burgard

Synopsis: The skies over Skartaris turn crimson, and all its people gaze upward fearfully. A skull-faced visage appears and intones:
“Bring me Travis Morgan or I shall cast a darkness upon the land unto the end of man.” Tara recognizes the voice if not the face: Deimos.

Tara points out Deimos will have to look elsewhere for Morgan; he tends to stay far from responsibility. One of her servants informs her that Morgan was sighted in a tavern called the Golden Acorn in the city today, despite her orders that he be barred from entry. The guardsmen who tried to enforce her will should recover. Tara’s not surprised he’s back: Adventure will always summon when nothing else can.

Tinder heads off to the Golden Acorn to meet his hero. As he’s climbing the stairs to its entrance, he’s surprised when the black cat in front of him with a mouse in its jaws turns into:

Tinder recognizes her from the stories. He asks if Travis Morgan, the Warlord, is there. Shakira comments that he speaks as if they’re the same person, then adds: “The Warlord is what they have made him. Travis Morgan is..well…See for yourself”:

Tinder approaches. Morgan snaps awake and grabs Tinder by the throat. He points his pistol at the startled minstrel and demands to know who sent him.

Morgan asks “Why?” Tinder tells him that they met once before and Morgan had told him incredible stories of the world he came from. Morgan says he doesn’t remember. He asks what Tinder wants.

Tinder replies that he wants to meet the legend. Morgan tells him that being a legend isn’t all it’s cracked up to be: You've always got to prove it to someone, and you never get used to “the look”:

Tinder shows Morgan the sky (Morgan replies he thought he had just drank himself blind) and asks for his help. He tells the Warlord that Tara is gathering an army to march on Thera. Morgan is sure she can handle it. Tinder gets angry at him and leaves.

Watching him go from the window, Morgan muses to Shakira that maybe every time one of them comes, he ought to just shoot them and be done with it. He doesn't have the heart for it though; they’re already mourning a hero.

Still, Morgan begins to put on his armor. “So another war?” Shakira asks.

“One’s as good as the next,” Morgan replies.

Later, Morgan rides into the palace grounds in front of the massed troops. He greets his mate and queen with a lame joke, and she breaks his nose as per usual. After some encouragement by Tinder,  Morgan gives a rousing but meaningless speech to the troops:

And they’re off to meet a eagerly waiting Deimos.

Things to Notice:

• As it has throughout this limited, Morgan's outfit appears  a bit more like genuine armor than it did in the actual series. Maybe this is an attempt at a minor retcon?
• Shakira has dark skin in this issue not particularly in keeping with her previous appearances. Maybe she just got a really good tan?

Where It Comes From:
Grell references the first meeting between Tinder and Morgan back in issue #58. Of course, this wasn't actually their first meeting as Tinder is really Joshua, Morgan's son.

Tinder references Deimos death in the darkness and cold along the Terminator. Morgan left Deimos to be devoured by wolves in issue #50. Of course, Morgan had already killed him not once, but twice before. He was also killed once by Tara's faithful dog, Shadow.

God of the Forge

Fights As: L15
Movement: 60' (20')
Armor Class: 4
Hit Points: 210
Attacks: 1
Damage: by weapon as below
Save: L15

S: 25   I: 25   W: 20   D: 12   C: 23   CH: 11

Special Abilities: as an Olympian, and see below

Hephaistos is the chief engineer and technologist of the Olympians. Unique among his people, his usual body is based on an extinct human subspecies: neandthalensis. He walks with a pronounced limp due to an old injury. His continued physical infirmity and less attractive appearance despite the technology of his people likely say something about his psychology. Hephaistos has a gruff demeanor and little time for things that don’t engage his curiosity. While he's seldom cruel, he doesn't forget slights.

The forge god maintains a secret workshop within an undisclosed volcanic mountain, though humans have identified many different mountains as its location in folklore. He is attended at all times by four golden automata (treat as androids) of unmistakably female form and aided in his experiments by the three elder cyclopes.

Hephaistos generally carries a hammer (actually an all-purpose tool) that can reconfigure as walking stick, sensor probe, cutting torch, and weapon (as light energized hammer: 4d6 damage; as energized war hammer: 7d6 damage; laser cutting torch: 5d6 damage, but close range only).

Aphrodite

Fights As: L5
Movement: 120' (40')
Armor Class: 4
Hit Points: 194
Attacks: 1
Damage: as below or by weapon
Save: L10

S: 17   I: 18   W: 17   D: 18   C: 23   CH: 25

Special Abilities: as an Olympian, and see below

Aphrodite is worshipped by mortals as the goddess of beauty, love, and procreation, but it is her own pleasure that she cares for more than anyone else’s. Aphrodite engages in research (if it can be called that) in various ways of enhancing mortal sexual pleasure and manipulating emotion. She most often appears as a perfectly formed woman with golden hair, but Aphrodite makes alterations both major and minor to her bodies the way other Olympians change clothes. Whatever the particulars of her form, her vanity ensures she is always beautiful.

Aphrodite doesn't engage in combat if she can avoid it. She wears a belt from which she can release nanites capable of manipulating emotional areas of the brain. It works like empathy except its effects are limited to creating attraction or pleasure (WIL 21 for the purposes of attack).

Gods, Demi-Gods & Strangeness

Is my new working title for my posts on the startling science fantasy truth behind Greek myth, a Mutant Future setting in the past. Here's what I've written so far for those who need to catch up:

An introduction.

Primordials:
Gaia

Titans: (Overview)
Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Themis
Helios
Okeanos

Gods:
Olympians
Dionysos
Hades
Nymphs

Monsters:
Centaurs
Cyclopes
Echidna
Giant Boars, Dragons, and Satyrs
Medusa
The Minotaur and Pasiphae
Stymphalian birds

Bomoth Bebop

Bomoth (sing. boma) are a species of renowned throughout the known galaxy as musicians. Though there home moon (Woon) is in the Coreward Reach, they can be encountered on tour in the various hegemonies and even the Zuran Expanse. They are best known for the improvisational, syncopated musical genre known as Bomoth jook.

Appearance and Biology: Bomoth appear something like blue giant caterpillars, 1.5 to 2.5 m long. They are invertebrates, possessing a hydrostatic skeleton. There faces are oddly human-like, though they have four eyes, each inferior to the human eye, but roughly comparable in the aggregate. Their auditory sensors are arranged around their head in a corona-like fashion, and have different receptors for different frequency ranges, lending overall superior sound discrimination to humans. Their bellows-like lungs enable fine breath control, aiding their playing of some musical instruments. Their vocal apparatus is such that they are incredible mimics. The number of their limbs depend on the individual's length, but the first 2 to 3 segments end in muscular tendrils capable of fine manipulation. The other limbs are similarly equipped, but less dexterous in most individuals. It's unclear how many sexes there are among them; bomoth are circumspect on that question with other species. Some individuals grow twin rows of dorsal spines, but the size of these vary with age and likely other factors.

A popular theory (likely suggested by their resemblance to caterpillars) is that bomoth are a larval form of some other organism. Visitors to the underground mushroom forests of their home moon occasionally report sightings of butterfly-winged creatures resembling human females flitting through the twilight. These sighting are dismissed as the result of exposure to psychoactive fungi spores in the atmosphere.

Artist rendition of one of the so-called "Angels of Woon"

Psychology: Bomoth tend to be relaxed, almost to the point of imperturbability. This is often attributed to their habitual use of a fungus-derived, mild intoxicant chreech, but it's likely a species trait. Bomoth are often philosophical and given to obscure musings, but this never gets in the way of praticalities, like payment for performances or seeking pleasure. Jook musicians are known for a distinctive slang, all but impenetrable to the uninitiated. 

No. Appearing:1-4

AC: 8

Hit Dice: 1

Saving Throw: Warrior 1

Attack Bonus: +0

Damage: by weapon, or 1-2 punch

Movement: 20’

Skill Bonus: +3

Morale: 7

Warlord Wednesday: Ballad Part 4

Here's another installment of my examination of  the adventures DC Comics' Travis Morgan--The Warlord.  The earlier installments can be found here...

"Ballad Part IV"

Warlord (vol. 2) #4 (April 1992)

Written by Mike Grell; Art by Dameon Willich and Tim Burgard

Synopsis: The stone body housing the skull of Deimos rises as the cultists prostrate themselves and praise him. They tell Deimos they worship him and hate the Warlord. They are ready to serve their god and await his command. Deimos’s first order for them:

Deimos laughs at the idea that he’s a god as he takes the throne, surrounded by the bodies of his would-be worshippers.

Meanwhile, Mariah finds Tinder playing guitar in a garden. She asks if it bothers him, going in search of the legend of the Warlord and finding the man Travis Morgan. She tells him she understands and relates her own story: how she met Morgan and followed him to Skartaris for the promise of adventure. Like Morgan, she fell in love with it and the freedom it offered. Coming from an oppressive society, she was eventually taken in by Morgan’s words like everyone else.

Back in Thera, Deimos infuses his slain worshippers with magical energy. The bodies rise as a zombie army! Deimos has a plan to finally destroy his hated enemy, the Warlord: “This time, the very Sun will run red with blood…and black with fear!”

Continuing their ride to Shamballah, Tinder remarks to Petrus that Morgan seems to hold an attraction to beautiful women. Petrus says except for one—the woman who was a cat or the cat who was a woman. He warns Tinder to be careful around her should they meet her.

They arrive in Shamballah and make their way to the palace. Morgan (predictably) isn’t there, but someone else is:

Tinder is surprised; he thought she was dead. Tara remarks he shouldn’t believe everything he hears. She leads them into the palace. Morgan is seldom there, she tells Tinder. He’s bored by affairs of state and runs off with his mistress. Tinder doesn’t know what to say, but Tara clarifies:

He runs off and then returns. Every time he does, Tara breaks his nose. He didn’t believe her the last time, when she told him if he left to never come back. He couldn’t believe her, because if he did he couldn’t have left. She knows he loves her after a fashion, but to stay would mean a slow and boring death. “And it takes no wizard to forsee that for Morgan death will be anything but boring.”

Suddenly, there’s an earthquake. When it’s subsided, they notice the sun is darker and it’s light redder.

Somewhere, Deimos laughs.

Things to Notice:

• Deimos is pretty ungrateful. No surprise there.
• Despite her cover appearance, Shakira only appears in flashback in this issue.

Where It Comes From:
Grell is perhaps referencing story arc in the original series (#126-133) that had Tara killed. Of course, she was eventually resurrected.