Apokolips Now

Yesterday, Evan Elkins requested someone do a hexcrawl of Darkseid's homeworld of Apokolips. Since Apokolips is pretty much a particular vision of hell, it seems like the misery can be safely distilled to a pointcrawl. Here's a quick and dirty rundown:

Overview: Apokolips is whole planet composed of a dirty, hellish industrial complex; it produces the implements of Darkseid's war against New Genesis, but it's main product is misery. The majority of the populace are the Hunger Dogs/Lowlies, normal humans who are the oppressed abject slaves of the Apokolipsian elite.

Locations:
Armagetto: The city-slums surrounding Darkseids palace. Security/military patrols are more common than elsewhere. It's the most "police state" of a planet-wde police state.
Fire Pits: These gigantic opening to the planet's core are fed by trash and refuse from the planet-city.
Happiness Home: Here, Lowlie children are trained and indoctrinated under Granny Goodness to become soldiers in Darkseid's armies.
Necropolis: Subterranean domain of the Dreggs--the undead corpses of the Old Gods acting out their days of glory.
Terrorium: An arena where bloodsports are held.
Tower of Rage: Darkseid's palace/fortress with a big sculpture of his head on top. In addition to the Darkseid himself, his chief torturer Desaad can be found here.
Unholy Sea: Supposedly the "lifeblood of Apokolips, where the souls of the deceased are trapped within its icy waters." The Deep Six likely dwell here.

Non-Unique Adversaries/Encounters:
Aero-Trooper: Solider flying on aero-discs.
Dog Cavalry: Elite troops riding giant mastiffs.
Parademons: Flying, genetically modified troops.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Green Hell (part 2)

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

Storm: The Green Hell (1980)
(Dutch: De Groene Hel)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

Storm and the old man put up a good fight, the ape men overwhelm them and knock them out. Looting the cabin, one of them accidentally activates a lighter and sets the whole place on fire. The apes flee leaving Storm and the old man at the mercy of the flames.

Meanwhile, Ember and Toriander arrive in Carefree City. When Ember rebuffs his advances:

Ember slaps his bear and it causes it to rear up and knock Toriander over. She makes her escape into the twisting alleyways of the city. Luckily, she meets a saloon owner named Saran that offers her a place to hide.

Storm awakens to find the cabin burning and an apeman dressed in clothes throwing "Gran'pa's" body over the railing. He moves to attack, but the apeman tells him he was only burying Gran'pa: the souls of the dead find peace when their bodies nourish the forest. He's a friend the old man has dubbed "Ugly Brute." Storm saves the the helmet from the fire and tells Ugly Brute he needs to get to Carefree City to ask Sudden Death Toriander about it. Ugly Brute agrees to take him:

In Carefree City. Saran shows Ember her prosthetic arm which she got thanks to Toriander accidentally firing off his gun. She disguises Ember to look like one of the barmaids to hide her from Toriander:

They catch another barmaid eavesdropping, but they aren't sure what she heard. Downstairs in the bar, Toriander is harangying his mooks about their inability to find Ember. The eavesdropping barmaid slinks up and tells Sudden Death the girl he's after is upstairs.

Around this time, Storm and Ugly Brute arrive in Saran's Saloon. They see Toriander race up the stairs. Toriander finds Saran and Ember. When Storm hears Ember cry out, he runs upstars, too:

TO BE CONTINUED

Azurthite Bestiary: The Arthropods from Nowhere

There is a place that the inhabitants call Zrgztl, but you might as well call it Nowhere because it's here and not here all at the same time. Its inhabitants live out of the phase with the world we know and only seldom interact with it. They are as smart as any normal folk--perhaps a little smarter--in Nowhere, but like a fish's gills don't work so well in the air, the Nowhere creatures' brains can't fully turn the corner to Earth and they become rather stupid here.

They're mean where ever they are.

The arthopods of Nowhere have strangely human-like faces, but they always look angry, like an irate schoolmaster. Even when they are in our world, they are only half here. Their forms are shimmery as heat haze. Their shadows seem more solid; They look like very flat mirrors or thin pools of mercury. The arthopods are always after something, but often they can't remember what it is.

Stats: Use the stats for the Phase Spider.

Sir Clangor's Character Sheet

Last week, showed off a couple of portraits for the pregens for my Mortzengersturm, the Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak game at NTRPGCon. Here's the character sheet for the first one--at least the front side:

Superman v. Batman is Just Ok, But It Made Me Hopeful for Justice League

I saw Superman vs. Batman: Dawn of Justice last night, and while I don't agree with the degree of negativity in a large portion of the reviews (some of which I suspect were at least partially composed before the movie even came out, given the hate it got and Zack Snyder gets in some quarters), a lot of the specific criticisms aren't without merit. The movie tries to do a lot and at times making this particular movie good in this particular moment seems to take a backseat to setting the dominoes in place for later scenes or future films.

The good: It's generally shot well and well-acted. Ben Affleck is both a good Bruce Wayne and a good Batman. The fight scenes in general are good, but particularly in the area of "Batman vs. normal folks" which have suffered in previous Bat films. Amy Adams as Lois Lane (though she doesn't have as much to do as I would like). Lawrence Fishburne as Perry White. The rationale and structure for how the Justice League sequels are established. The fact that Gotham and Metropolis are across a bay from each other (as suggested by numerous Silver and Bronze Age comics). The result of the battle with Doomsday (which I would not have done but is an interesting way to move forward). And Wonder Woman--pretty much everything to do with her:

The not good: The choppy nature of the first half of the film; I realize "show don't tell," but showing too much makes your film a series of vignettes. Some of that could have been handled as exposition. Batman is far from the world's greatest detective here. Luthor has a nicely set up super-villain ridiculous plan (I mean that to be complimentary) in many ways, but his final push that makes Batman go into a reason-abandoning, anti-Superman frenzy is elementary school level subterfuge. Superman standing or floating majestically instead of--well, doing something--too many times; I realize less-active-Superman is a tactic other media has often engaged in to deal with his power level (even in the DC animated stuff, Superman moves awful slooowwww at times for a guy with super-speed and super-reflexes), but it just makes you mad at him. Here his passive broodiness is suppose to convey emotional conflictedness (I guess), but they didn't sell you on that with dialogue. Lex is sometimes perfect in his manic-ness and other times overdone; my biggest complaint regarding him is that no one in story comments on his clearly mentally ill behavior until he reveals his villainous plan.

Pregen PC Portraits

My con game of Mortzengersturm, The Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak (and the published adventure after all) will have pregenerated characters. The awesome Jeff Call has been working on portraits to bring the particular character of the Land of Azurth to them. Here are the first two:

SIR CLANGOR, 

A Knight of the old and famed Order of the Pennon Or.

His blazon is: Or, a chess knight sable.

Fighter (War Master)

MOONFLOWER, 

Wood Elf of the Aldwode

She is reputed to have once killed an Ogre with attitude alone.

Ranger

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Green Hell

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

Storm: The Green Hell (1980)
(Dutch: De Groene Hel)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Dick Matena

Storm and Ember fly over the thick jungles of what used to South America in the aero-transport, looking for a place to land so they can find water and food. Suddenly, they are attacked by large vultures looking for a meal. Storm is knocked from the craft.

The birds keep chasing Ember, but she manages to find an opening in the thick canopy and dives down. She looses the birds, but also control of the craft. She jumps free before it crashes into a cliff-side. She falls through the canopy, bouncing off vines and branches until she lands, dazed by relatively unharmed on the mossy floor. She isn't alone:

Meters away, Storm is hanging unconscious on a vine higher in the canopy. An ape-man approaches him and is about to bash Storm's skull with a stone axe, when he's felled by an arrow. The old man who fired the arrow lifts Storm over his shoulder and carries back to his cabin in the trees.

Meanwhile, the green humanoids are advancing on Ember with clear intentions of eating her. Suddenly, they stop they sense someone else coming. They turn and run but one gets shot from behind as they go.

When Storm comes to, the old man introduces himself as Gran'pa and says he's a snake hunter. Storm notices a space helmet that looks just like the one he had (destroyed back in Volume 1). "Gran'pa" tells Storm he got it in Carefree City from a guy named Toriander. He's the only one with guts enough to go scavenging on the ground.

Ember is face to face with her rescuer--"Sudden Death" Toriander. He can't believe his luck finding a beautiful outsider on the ground. He figures he can get a good price for Ember in Carefree City. Brandishing the gun he used to blast the "corpse-eaters" he sets Ember walking.

Meanwhile, the old man explains the lingo of the forest civilization to Storm: The ground floor is the ground, Only crazy folks like Toriander go there, but that's where he found his gun. The third floor is the highest level with the most sunlight--and food. The second floor is where the old man lives. The first floor is inhabited by snakes and ape men. Carefree City is on the third floor.

Storm will need to go there to meet Toriander and find out where he found the helmet. Before they make any further plans:

Ape attack!

TO BE CONTINUED