The Fall of the Toad Temple

Our 5e Land of Azurth game continued last night, with the party still exploring the Toad Temple, looking to stop the depredations of the cultists--and searching wardrobes.

There were a number of smallish sacks of money in wardrobes.

Mostly avoiding conflict because a (pre-planned) uprising of the townsfolk was creating a diversion, the pary sneaked through the levels of the temple. Ultimately, they find the Power Plant and subdue a Apprentice Powerman. With the proper persuasion, he reveals that the "shifting" of the temple is controlled by the Main Computer. He also lets it slip that they are originally from the future, and they do not want to return there.

Luckily, the Computer Room is just across the hall. Unluckily, the Computermen have herd the ruckus and barricaded themselves in.  As soon as the party breaks through, the Computer Supervisor and his apprentice open fire with ray guns. Finally remembering they have already picked up ray guns themselves, the party returns fire. The apprentice goes down instantly.

The Supervisor, believing they have go to destroy the computer, fights to the last, but eventually falls.

The party uses the high priest's ring and a keyboard to speak to the computer. Strangely, both the keyboard and the screen are in Azurthite Common.

They command the computer to take the temple back where it came, but program a delay, so they can escape. Random encounter rolls are in their favor, and they make it out of the Temple just in time to see it ripple and disappear.

The tyranny of the toads is at an end. The party is reuinited, but has little time to celebrate their victory. Phosphoro appears and reminds them of their promise. He activates his staff and whisks them away to the future--where Rivertown lies in ruins!

Hellion [ICONS]

HELLION

Abilities:
Prowess: 5
Coordination: 6
Strength: 4
Intellect: 4
Awareness: 5
Willpower: 5

Determination: 3
Stamina: 9

Specialties: Athletics, Martial Arts, Investigation, Stealth

Qualities:
Something to Prove
"I'm nobody's sidekick"
Hotheaded

Powers:
Hellfire Bands (Strike Device Bashing): 6
      Extra: Burst, (Degrades, Burnout)
Swinging Device: 3

Background:
Alter Ego: Robert Chase
Occupation: Graduate student, musician
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: Nick and Nora Chase (parents, deceased)
Group Affiliation: Former partner of Devil-Man
Base of Operations: Arkham
First Appearance: (as Imp) STRANGE DETECTIVE COMICS #42; (as Hellion) ARMCHAIR PLANET PRESENTS #71
Height: 5'10"  Weight: 175 lbs.
Eyes: Blue  Hair: Blond

History:
Robert Chase is the son of Nick and Nora Chase, Occult Investigators and friends of Devil-Man. When they died to the reckless actions of a group of cultists, young Robby was seriously injured and Devil-Man gave him the "invitalizing draught" (which had heightened Devil-Man's own physical abilities) to save his life. In his identity as Kurt Ward, he became Robby's guardian. Devil-Man began training the boy, who soon debuted as the first Imp.

When he entered college, Robby's activities as Imp decreased. He began to want to separate himself from his mentor, with whom he had began to disagree on methods. The final break was over the use of the Hellfire Bands, which Devil-Man felt were too dangerous. Robby took on the new identity of Hellion.

Solar Trek: The Archon's Return

source

The discovery of the long lost generation ship Archon by Enterprise in 2263 underscored to the General Assembly of United Federation of Sol why sophont AI was to be feared.

Though records of the its launch are nonexistent (either destroyed in the chaos of the third World War or lost in the rapid changes in data storage formats that followed), its design, computer systems, and the cybernetic implants among its passengers suggest Archon (ICV-189) was a generation ship launched toward Proxima Centauri b in the early 21st Century. Its habitat areas were home to several diverse communities, among them some religious minorities, including a (ironically) technology-rejecting traditionalist Christian sect.

Archon would never reach Proxima Centauri. Federation forensic teams have been unable to determine what calamity happened first: the death of a number of crew in an accident, a breakout of hostilities among the colonists, or a malfunction in the vessel's artificial intelligence. Whatever the cause, several habitat regions were lost and others became isolated, armed camps. One of the crew took radical action that restored a semblance of peace, but at a cost. Programmer Nicholas Landru put the computer in charge.

At some point, the course of Archon was changed. It re-entered history again in the Sol System, where it was intercepted by Enterprise. What they found in the only functioning habitat area was a society resembling a late nineteenth century agrarian community with the inhabitants completely unaware they were on a vessel. Despite appearances, the members of the community were extensively managed and condition by cybernetic implants controlled by ship's AI, whom they referred to as "Landru." There were dissidents among them,  individuals presumably for whom the neurochemical conditioning was inadequate, who looked to the return of the "Archons" (a distorted memory of the vessel's crew) to save them.

The Enterprise crew in the habitat

Unconcerned with cultural contamination, Captain James Kirk of Enterprise destroyed Landru. He was criticized in some academic circles, but both Space Fleet and Federation inquiries absolved the Captain and his crew of any wrongdoing.

The Archon's passengers have been resettled in a protect area so that a Federation team can slowly work on integrating them into society and undoing Landru's conditioning.

Omniverse

Last year I did a series of superhero-themed posts on Google+ inspired by Wold-Newton essays and with the conceits there was only one Earth (encompassing both the Marvel and DC and possibly other "universes") and the world tended to work like our own, despite its somewhat altered history. This served to both ground the characters in history, making them more "realistic" and making history stranger! The name for the series was taken from Mark Gruenwald's 1979 fanzine alternate comic book realities.

With Gplus in its death throes, I exported those posts and they are now blogposts here. Only a few of them are currently visibly, but if you want to check them out, follow the Omniverse label at the bottom of this post.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: Vandaahl the Destroyer

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues with his adventures in the world of Pandarve. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: Vandaahl the Destroyer (1987) (part 1)
(Dutch: Vandaahl de Verderver)
Art by Don Lawrence; script by Martin Lodewijk

In a small, strange universe, somewhere in the multiverse, a war which has lasted for millions of years comes to an end. Vandaahl the Destroyer, Lord of Chaos, Agent of Death, is brought before his triumphant enemies. He gloats that he won the moment they chose to take up arms against him, and he relishes the irony that they will now kill him in the name of peace.

But his enemies don't plan to kill him. Instead, he will be locked in the Armor of Eternity. He will be held in stasis until the end of time. They also plan to throw the armor into a black hole. They are unsure of what will happen. The All-Creator will decide his fate.

Apparently, the All-Creator isn't done with Vandaahl. Drawn into the black hole, he isn't destroyed, but instead shunted through a white hole into another universe...

He comes down like a meteorite into the water world where Storm, Ember, and Nomad have been living with a community of fishermen. Nearly drowned in the resulting wave, our heroes decide to dive down and investigate when they see a glow beneath the water. Storm and one of the fishermen don special jellyfish and diving helmets and go down.

The next day, they come back to haul up the armored figure. Storm weirdly has a hard time touching it, like his hand and the figure are two magnets, repelling each other. They take the mysterious figures back to the fisherfolks' nest to take counsel with the elders.

While the adults are talking, children are playing around the figure. They inadvertently activate some controls...

And Vandaahl lives!

TO BE CONTINUED

The Thrilling Adventures of Luke Skywalker

On Google Plus, Dan D. asked what my "solar system only" version of Star Wars would be. My initial impulse was to but Star Wars all on one fantastic planet like Mongo or on a planet system with a number of moons like Pandarve in Storm or Mongo of the 1980 film. On further consideration, I thought a more Buck Rogers or post-Raymond Flash Gordon thing would also be cool....

Planet Earth has once again been plunged into a World War. An oppressive Empire has gained control of five continents, and the Americas are under siege. Brave freedom fighter rocketeers striking from hidden bases, have managed to keep the military might of the Empire at bay.

To crush the resistance once and for all, the Empire has constructed a giant battle station within an asteroid. The power of the Death Star will spell certain doom for the Union of Pan-America, and for the other free worlds of the Solar System.

Princess Leia, a refugee of conquered Europe and Resistance agent, is charged with spiriting stolen plans to the Death Star off Earth and to the secret base on Ceres. Unfortunately, her ship is captured by a squadron of Imperial rockets commanded by Darth Vader.

The Death Star's commander, Grand Moff Tarkin, will interrogate the Princess personally

She managed to records a desperate message hide it in the collar of a pet Callistan ape and puts him the hands of her robot servant. The "life raft" containing the robot and monkey lands on Mars, where they fall into the hands of a farmboy Luke Skywalker, a settler from Earth, living with his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beryl. Luke discovers the message and is compelled by it to seek out Obiwan Kenobi.

Obiwan saves Luke from the savage Tuskens

Spurred by the urgency of the message Obi Wan, Luke, the monkey, and the robot go to spaceport Mos Eisley to find a ship to carry them to Earth. They hire a hotshot pilot named Han Solo with a Venusian Wookie co-pilot, Chewbacca.

"She's fast enough for you, old man."

Solo is eager to get off Mars, because he owes money to the local crime boss who is in league with the Empire.

"Bring me Solo!"

And so on...

You get the idea!

Weird Revisited: A Traveller's Life

Recent discussion on Google Plus regarding Traveller made me recall this post originally from 2014...

E.C. Tubb's Dumarest of Terra novels are one of the primary inspirations for the game Traveller, though the game doesn't bother the central conceit of the novel. Tubb's protagonist Earl Dumarest other travellers are essentially space hobos: they book dangerous low passage in cryogenic berths from world to world. This contrasts with the wealthy in high passage, who take quick time drug to slow their perception and make time pass quicker to shorten the ennui of the voyage.

Though the Traveller mixes in other influences and gives PCs their own ship, Tubb's original set-up would make a good game all on its own. What's more, it strikes me that Dumarest would be pretty easy to turn into a "hard" science fiction game. It would be trivial to dispense with artificial gravity (and anti-gravity), but I think you could even dispense with FTL.

Alastair Reynolds's novels in the so-called "Revelation Space universe" show how this could be done. Reynolds has no FTL, but does have interstellar travel via "lighthuggers" making voyages at close to light-speed with relativistic time dilation at play. Passengers on lighthuggers are put in cyrogenic freeze because of the length of the voyages. Just like in the Dumarest novels, cyrogenesis isn't without risks. Some passengers die and many have temporary amnesia.

In a modern, hard science fiction approach, low passage wouldn't just be cheap, it would be the only way for the middle class and poor to travel between worlds. Middle passage (the crew) might be more like the Ultras in Reynolds's books: transhuman space-mariners, living their lives on board ship and looking down on system-bound folk. High passage is still for the wealthy, but I don't think quicktime drugs alone would be enough the years (or even decade) long voyages. The wealthy (like the ship's crew) would no doubt have extended lifespans: perhaps centuries--and possibly even immortality, barring misadventure. Superlong lifespans,quicktime drugs, and brief periods in cryo-sleep would make it possible, though the the ships would have to have a lot of entertainment available and be pretty large.

Obviously, you couldn't do a lot a travel back and forth between worlds in this sort of set up, but if like Dumarest you mostly kept moving from one adventure to another that wouldn't really be necessary. Travellers would always be on the move to the next world, far away and years into the future.