Warlord Wednesday: Sea King in Skartaris

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

"To Enter the Lost World..."/ "Worlds Apart" / "Power Game"

Aquanman (vol. 3) #71-73 (September-November 2000) Written by Dan Jurgens, Penciled by Steve Epting, Inked by Norm Rapmund

Synopsis: Machiste, Mariah, and Mongo are on a desperate ride through the Skartarian jungle. They decide they have to split up. Mariah and Machiste will deal with the Ch'rin, while Mongo rides on to the Gate. Mongo makes it to the stone arch of the Gate of Infinity. There, he casts a spell that creates a vortex in the pool beyond the gate.

On Earth, in the Atlantean city of Poseidonis, Aqualad senses some mystical disturbance and rushes to tell his king, Aquaman, about it. Bored with affairs of state, Aquaman and his queen Mera go to check it out. They find a vortex that they are quickly sucked into it.

Arriving on the other side, the first thing they see is an elasmosaurus, suggesting there in the past. They're even more confused when they rise to the surface and are almost run over by what looks like a Viking longship. Believing them to be evil wizards, the seamen pour burning oil on to the water. Aquaman summons the marine reptile to destroy one of the ships. Then, a familiar figure dives (rashly) from one of the ships to confront the "wizards" head on:

Aquaman mistakes him for Oliver Queen and doesn't fight back. When Morgan realizes what's going on, he rises to the surface to talk. He explains who he is and invites them onboard his ship. He tells them that Skartaris is under a grave threat and so they were summoned by Mongo's spell. A short distance upriver into the jungle, and he shows them what they're facing:

The Ch'rin are the servitors of an evil sorcerer, Valgos. One of them smashes the lead ship with a gigantic fist. Morgan's bullets are useless against them, but Mera is able to use her power to knock one of them over. Aquaman start's giving orders to Morgan's men, which doesn't sit terribly well with the Warlord, but he takes it for now.

Morgan leads the two Atlanteans to Valgos's lair:

They infiltrate the skull fortress: Morgan repelling in from above, Aquaman and Mera swimming in from below. The Atlanteans are first to meet the wizard--and mind-controlled Machiste and Mariah as his protectors! The Atlanteans are winning, until Valgos takes control of Aquaman's shapechanging metal hand. When Morgan arrives on the scene:

Morgan and Mera are soon captured, though not before Mera discovers that the masked Valgos is really just another mind controlled pawn: Mongo. Valgos (controlling Aquaman through his hand, now spread over his whole body) puts Mera in a heating pool to boil her alive.

It turns out Valgos controls all the others with symbiotes that will kill them over time, because they resist his domination. Valgos sends Machiste to finish Mera and Morgan off. Meanwhile, a bit of the liquid metal from Aquaman's prosthetic hand left on Mera's cheek, grows to cover her and protect her from the heat. She realizes Valgos must not have full control over her husband's mind.

She breaks Morgan free. Machiste attacks, but Morgan lays him out with a punch.

Later, we see Machiste return to Valgos. To the evil sorcerer's surprise me moves to free Mariah: he's out of Valgos's control. Morgan starts to shoot Valgos, but Mera reminds him the wizard controls Aquaman's body. Or does he?

Our heroes make it out of the skull, but there's no sign of  Valgos--until the giant skull begins to rise out of the muck, attached to a whole giant body, with Valgos in the jewel on its forehead.

With the help of Mera's water powers, Aquaman jumps up and punches through the jewel, grabbing Valgos.

With the jewel destroyed, the giant body crumbles. It turns out Valgos is dead and appears to have been for some time. Aquaman theorizes the jewel must have acted like a battery, holding on to his life-force.

The wizard defeated, Aquaman and Mera want a way home. Mongo says that might be tough, but Aquaman reminds him of what happened to the last wizard that crossed him.

Things to Notice:

• All the covers are by Michael Kaluta.
• Morgan has heard of Aquaman and knows the Justice League used to have their base in a cave.
• Unlike every other superhero visitor, Aquaman and Mera don't adopt Skartarian clothes. Maybe they just didn't have time?
• For some reason, Aquaman's and Mera's super-strength isn't in evidence here.

Where it comes from: 
Again, Dan Jurgens pens a Warlord crossover that gets the characters and the world right, for the most part (though he makes Morgan rather atagonistic to Aquaman for no good reason, other than that's just the way things work in crossovers).

This is the first time we've seen Mongo Ironhand since issue #98 (1985). How he got from the Age of the Wizard Kings to the present of Skartaris isn't explained.

Harpies

No. Enc.:  1d6
Movement:  Fly 360' (120')
Armor Class:  7
Hit Dice:  3
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d6 (talons)
Save:  L3
Morale:  7

Despite fanciful presentations of them as winged women (at least having the upper bodies of women) harpies are actually large birds of prey (wing spans as big as 10 ft and weighing 30 lbs.) with beakless faces uncannily similar to a woman's. Though not hideous in form, their faces are unnerving, somehow both soulless and over-expressive. Their mouths are filled with sharp teeth.

Harpies were either engineered by the Olympians or brought from some distant world. They use them to punish humans that have offended them in some way, though some have escaped into the wild. Though they all appear female, nothing is known of their actual sexes or whether they have any ability to reproduce.

They are very intelligent for animals, but no more than that. They can make mimic human speech in voices like old women, but are only able to repeat things they've heard.

Swoop attacks cause double damage if the target is surprised. The filth of their nests is such that their talons are terrible purveyors of infection. Anyone damaged by a harpies talons must make a saving throw versus poison. A failure means they take 1-2 points of damage a day for a duration of 1 week.

City Automobile Enthusiast

The automobile is an important part of the world of Weird Adventures, though no specific automobile makes are mentioned in the book. Some of these after appeared in play; after all, adventurers like to get around town in style.

A modest new sedan (like a standard model from the Cord Motor Company) can be purchased for around $500-600. Fancier automobiles or sporty models will cost more--sometimes, much more. Here are a couple of high end examples that have appeared in my games:

5883 Raser "Dual Six" Fitzroy Sports Saloon
Engine: V12, 150 bhp
Top Speed: 100 mph
This is a luxury automobile; less than 60 exist and each was built to order at a price of $12,000+. Cornelius Doyle's has a silver elephant head hood ornament.

5885 Auberon 761 Series C Speedster
Engine: super-charged 8-cylinder, 150 bhp
Top Speed: 104 mph
This stylish roadster sales for $2245. Gentleman thief Don Diabolico is the proud owner of one.

Mapping Terra Incognita

Not getting all the map posting out of my system with yesterday's post, I figured I would follow it up with another today. This is Pal-ul-don from Tarzan the Terrible, as expanded by Dell Comics' Tarzan's Jungle Annual #1. Pal-ul-don is located in Africa and has carnivorous triceratops, among other things. You could locate it anywhere you wanted, of course, but you probably want to keep the carnivorous triceratops.

West side:

East side:

Points of the Interest in a Lost World

I'm working on map of the lost world I mentioned previously--and enlisting the help of the Metal Earth's cartographer in the final draft. Anyway, here are few of the points of interest I've thought of so far:

Valley of the Ants
Lair of the Swamp Witch
Wreck of the Zephyrus
Mesa of the Sky-Vikings
Brontosaur Burial Grounds
The City of the Golden Man
Forest of the Amazons
The Temple of the Skull
Castle of the Necromancer
Tomb of the Giant Kings

Oh, and here's a map of the Savage Land to tide you over:

Warlord Wednesday: Teen Titans in the Lost World

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

"The Lost World of Skartaris (Part 1-3)"

Teen Titans (vol. 2) #9-11 (June-August 1997)

Story and Pencils by Dan Jurgens, Inks by George Perez

Synopsis: Prysm, one of the Teen Titans, is running through a jungle from a tyrannosaur when Travis Morgan comes to her rescue. Against his better judgement, Morgan decides to get involved and asks her who she is and how she got here. She doesn't remember. Morgan lets her accompany him on his search for his daughter.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Titans are flying over the Arctic looking for Prysm. She was critically injured and Argent (a teammate) tried to revive her with her energy powers. Prysm revived alright--then flew off. They tracked her to the North Pole, but they run into a fierce storm. Their plane goes down but instead of crashing, they glimpse dinosaurs and jungle through the clouds.

The Titans walk away from the crash, but they're attacked by a group of warriors. Their powers allow them to hold their own, but they're in danger of being taken down by sheer numbers. Then, the leader of the warriors appears:

Morgan and Prysm have troubles of their own. A gigantic cobra emerges from the ground. It shoots blasts of energy from its mouth, knocking out our heroes. The snake's mistress emerges:

Normally, the Warlord would be quite a trophy for Motalla, but Prysm is worth even more!

The other Titans are taken back to Shamballah by Tara and her troops, though they have to combat a horde of stampeding triceratops on the way. The Titans convince her that they don't know Morgan. She tells Argent about the strange sky city now floating above Skartaris and how their are attacks by giant snakes when it appears.

Morgan, Shakira, and Prysm wake up in some high tech room. Motalla enters and allows them to believe she saved them from the snake. She tells them their are in the floating city of Timmanis. Motalla tempts Prysm with the promise of making her human again--and takes over her body. She drops Morgan and Shakira through a trap door.

The other Titans (in their new Skartarian outfits) fight the strange snakes appearing throughout the city, but the snakes neutralize their powers and they're taken captive. They wake up in a smelly dungeon...

The Titans free Morgan and Shakira--only for all of them to get blasted by Motalla with Prysm's powers. Cody in particular gets blasted out of the city, while somewhere close by, a now-human Prysm daydreams about finally being able to have a relationship with him.

Cody flies through Prysm's ship like a cannonball before crashing into the ground. Luckily, he's able to catch Prysm as she falls:

After he chastizes her for her selfishness, the two run into Tara and Tinder. They suggest the two Titans take a pteranodon ride back to the sky city.

Meanwhile, Motalla is beating Morgan and the Titans pretty soundly. The Atom riding Shakira manages to escape and find Motalla's mysterious power source:

Adding Jennifer to the mix starts to turn the tide for our heroes, but only the timely arrival of Prysm wins the day. Jennifer is able to reverse Motalla's theft, and Prysm is back to her previously self. Motalla ages to a crone for her trouble.

Evil defeated, The Titans prepare to return to Earth through a portal Jennifer creates for them. Prysm (still down on her inhuman form) considers staying in Skartaris, but ultimately decides to stay with her teammates.

Things to Notice:

• Dan Jurgens returns to the character that launched his professional comics career. 
• Morgan initially thinks the Teen Titans is the name of a rock band.
• Skartarian fashion must be really appealing. Every time a superhero winds up there, they adopt it pretty quickly.

Where it comes from: 
This crossover doesn't reference a any old Warlord stories in particular (other than the existence of a sky city), but does get the characters and their relationships right. The pony-tailed guy accompanying Tara is pretty clearly meant to be Tinder, though he is never named in the story.

Caliban Ferox

The Caliban are a humanoid culture found in a torrid, jungle-choked orbital habitat on the border between the Coreward Reach and the Vokun Empire. They're infamous in the popular imagination for their warlike nature and enthusiastic cannibalism.

Appearance and Biology: Interestingly, there is no fauna in the Caliban's habitat larger than a rat of Paleo-Earth that isn't in the same genetic family as the primary Caliban sophonts: there is a group of presophont pack hunters that look like a semi-quadrupedal version of the Caliban, for example. The primary Caliban are basically human in bioform, though they exhibit less sexual dimorphism than baseline type. Their faces are heavily wrinkled and shriveled appearance. All the Caliban family lifeforms share this facial appearance. Their skin tones range from a grayish brown to an ashen gray-white. Their teeth are sharpened to points, though this is a modification they make, not their natural form. Their skulls are somewhat small for their body size.

Psychology: It's believed that the extinction of most fauna in the habitat led to the prominence of cannibalism in their culture. In any case, they like to indulge even when other food sources are available. They do not view sapience as a reason not to eat an organism--a trait that lends them a negative reputation among other sophonts. Caliban don't care. They have little empathy for those outside of their kinship group. Those who employ them as mercenaries often insist they take special drugs to induce a pheremonal response mimicking their natural response to genetic relatives. Though this produces more cooperative behavior toward employers and comrades than would be shown otherwise, it will not stop Caliban from consuming their bodies when they die.

No. Appearing:1-6

AC: 7

Hit Dice: 1

Saving Throw: Warrior 1

Attack Bonus: +2

Damage: by weapon

Movement: 30’

Skill Bonus: +1

Morale: 9