Outlaw Velocipede Gangs of Azurth

art by humei YE

In the eastern plains of the Country of Yanth in the Land of Azurth, there are nomads with an unusual mode of travel. These rovers have tamed giant, fast moving arthopods of an unusual sort: the velocipede (as they are called) possesses not a single leg for locomotion, but instead have wheels in place of the usual limbs. It would be quite appropriate to assume some thaumaturgy is responsible for this state of affairs, though the origins of the velocipede are obscure. The nomads keep the breeding and handling of these beasts likewise cloaked in secrecy, presumably to hold the advantage of velocipede-assisted high speed travel for themselves.

The nomads tend to be dispersed in bands or gangs, typically with some totemic banner to unite them. They accessorize their gang livery with things like horned helmets, long hair, and exuberant mustaches. A boy is not counted a man among them until he has tamed his first velocipede, and a woman who wishes to be respected and viewed as equal is well to do likewise. While it would be unfair to say the rovers are universally bandits or raiders, few are at all adverse to these vocations, and they all look down upon the farming or commerce engaged in by more settled folk. The velocipede riders will sometimes hire themselves out as escorts or mercenaries, at least for a time. They will not kill a bard or minstrel, though they will certainly frighten or tease one whose music doesn’t meet their raucous tastes.

Velocipedes: are large creatures, with ability scores like carrion crawlers, though not the attacks other than bite. Their speed on their 6-10 (depending on size and age) wheels is 50 ft. They have a trampling attack similar to a warhorse. They make sputtering noises like Speed Buggy, which their riders claim to understand.

Children's toy based on stories of Velocipedes, bearing little resemblance to the real creature

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Last Fighter (part 3)

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: The Last Fighter (1979) (part 3)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Martin Lodewijk

Now in the control room of the Palace of Death (really an alien spacecraft) Storm sits down to see if he can figure out the controls--over the objections of the superstitious Guardian who decrees his actions as blasphemy. Soon, he discovers how to restore power. With safety and all the synthesized food they can eat, the other champions feel like they're in heaven. Storm has conquered the Guardian's god.

He finds them a way out, too. A shuttlecraft:

They survivors fly back to Soamandrakisal. The city folk come to greet them and celebrate Storm's victory for Soamandrakisal, but he brushes them aside. His only concern is freeing Ember.

The vengeful Guardian has other ideas:

Storm hears Ember's cries within the god-thing's maw and realizes she's still alive. While Asverze goes after the treacherous Guardian, Storm impetuously dives in after Ember. He slides down the god's esophagus until:

At first, they think they can wait for those above to throw down a rope, but they've irritated the monster's stomach lining, and its acid production increases. They've got to get out; if they can't go up, they'll have to go downward. Things get sort of weird:

When finally they come to rest, they're in a cave with me trace of He-Who-Must-Be-Fed. They exit the cave and find themselves in the valley surrounding the Palace of Death. Ember wonders what happened, Storm has a kind of farfetched sounding theory:

Before they can hash that out further, the shuttlecraft comes flying over head. The Guardian is at the controls, but Asverze has got him by the throat, trying to kill him for betraying Storm. They crash right into the Palace of Death and it all goes up in a huge explosion. The surrounding mountains are shaken. Storm and Ember get out of the valley just in time before a rockslide closes off the entrance.

Ember sees a heard of dagger-horned deer creatures ahead, and our heroes are pretty much back where they started.

Presidents Days Past (and Future)

It's Presidents Day once again! Check out these classic holiday  related posts:

Delve into the ahistory of the teen president Prez.

Take a look at a trio of sinister presidents who will never be honored.

The Otus Pantheon

Blame Chris Kutalik. He did a post Sunday about imagining a pantheon based on Erol Otus strange evocative illustrations in Deities & Demigods. This is what I came up with:

Click to check it out in its enlarged "glory." The domains provided are for 5th edition.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Last Fighter (part 2)

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: The Last Fighter (1979) (part 2)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Martin Lodewijk

With Ember in a cage hanging over the mouth of a mostly- buried, giant god-thing, the implicit threat is clear: Storm is to be the city's champion and fight for the throne of the Palace of Death. Or else.

A guide leads Storm from the city and on a several day's trek across the desert. They come to a mountain range and take a very narrow pass through it that looks like it was cut by intense hit. As they emerge on the other side, some sort of giant turtle monster approaches--only to get sliced in half by an energy beam. The guide says the gods punish large animals that try to approach. He leaves Storm at the Valley of Bones. Only champions are allowed to go further.

Storm follows the path across the bones and soon sees the "Palace of Death" before him:

Storm moves closer and finds the other champions waiting for him.

The old man says he's the Guardian of the Palace. Now that Storm has arrived they can begin. The Guardian will guide them through the traps and perils to the place where the last champion died the previous year. From there, he will observe their progress and be able to report the knowledge gained in their respective demises to the champions the following year. Storm asks how long has this gone on, and the Guardian tells him it has been thousands of years. The current guardian is the 615th.

He leads the champions single file along an invisible but torturous path to the "palace." One champion decides to walk directly there; he's disintegrated for his impatience. The rest make it to the ship. Once inside, they pass through a series of traps: portals that grow hot if you don't pass through quickly enough, hypnotic-patterned walls, checkerboard floors that have to be tread on in a certain pattern, and more. They lose two more champions reaching the point that marks the extent of the Guardian's knowledge.

The first champion sent into the next room falls through a trapdoor into lava. Storm is next up; the Guardian counted the steps and tells Storm when to jump. Asverze [Skarla in the Titan Books version], the only female champion, is sent first into the next room. She finds herself facing a duplicate.

Storm realizes the ship's computer is generating a hologram to match her moves, He rushes into the room over the Guardian's protests to add another element to the equation. Forced to fight shifting opponents, the duplicates' movements get slower and they eventually disappear.

From that point on, Storm leads the way using his new understanding of the palace to guide them. The Guardian decries this all as blasphemy, but nobody listens. Passing through the traps, they find an escalator with skeletons of ancient crew scattered about. They take the escalator to the control room--and the "throne" of the Palace.

TO BE CONTINUED

Three Worlds: A Strange Stars OSR Excerpt

From the pages of the upcoming Strange Stars OSR, here are three worlds detailed in Stars Without Number style:

BOREAS
Tags  Seagoing Cities, Zombies
Enemies  Animated bioroid beast, Vrzemko Koprdazak xenophobic local kommissar, Zyta Hrenj paranoid ranger
Friends  Scientist Jarka Lissik seeking communication with the Cold Minds, Local trader Balok Zek
Complications Transport breakdown out on the ice, Dead from a sunken warship animated by the Cold Minds
Things Container of weaponized microorganisms; Exclusive trade contract with the uldra
Places Ranger station beneath the ice, The subsurface levels of a trading settlement

GOGMAGOG

Tags  Desert World, Local Specialty

Enemies Crazy bot-breaker Haxo Ysgar; Robber gang

Friends Merc Faizura Deyr working for the bot-breakers, Free trader supplying bot-breakers

Complications.Von Neumann machine swarm, A malfunctioning giant robot 

Things Hidden entrance to the mysterious planetary substructure, A forgotten, ancient giant bot

Places A shanty town; A junkyard

PHOBETOR
Tags  Local Tech, Flying City, Badlands World
Enemies Industrial spy disguised as a technician, Dark dream-dealer Arden-Decima
Friends Customer interface specialist Soren-Tertia, Short-duration reverie designer Alex-Quintus
Complications A loosed frumious bandersnatch, Wealthy BASE-jumpers wingsuit-flying to the planet’s surface
Things An experimental dream drug product, A captured art-monster, weaponized dream-tech
Places The sky city of Eidolon, An ancient underground vault

In Space No One Can Hear You Scream

I'd initially planned to not to get any new art for the Strange Stars OSR book, instead reusing the great stuff that had been done for the Fate book, but when Jason Sholtis expressed interest in doing a piece, I had to take him up on it.

This illustration will likely head (appropriately) the monster/NPCs chapter. Currently, that chapters contents include stats for Algosian torture cultists, Caliban cannibals, Hyehoon Eden Seeker terrorists, Eratoan assassins, and of course, three colors of ssraad--among others.