Monsters, Blood & Treasure

John M. Stater has released the monster manual for the second edition of his retroclonish Blood & Treasure (discussed, here). While the stat blocks are pretty universal, one might reasonably think if they already have the monster book for their clone of choice, why do they need another? Okay, the cover is awesome, but why else?

It is true that many of the monsters are the usual assortment of humanoids, dragons, demons, and devils, but there are a few SRD notables I haven't seen in any old school product before. There are some new creatures and interesting homages to non-SRD beasties, too, like the "we-don't-need-no-stinking-Modrons" Polyhedroids. All of these stat blocks and descriptions are old school short (I don't think there is a page with less than 2 monsters), it is much more lavishly illustrated than most basic, old school monster books in an array of styles from well-chosen public domain illustration to cartoony. The only downside is that audiences used to modern monster books pinups, these will seem small. All in all, these traits make it probably the most AD&D Monster Manual of monster books I have seen.

There are the usual encounter charts by terrain, plane, and level. There are quick rules for many monsters as PC races. The typical extras, in other words. There are also a handful of one page "mini-adventures," all short and flavorful. John is good at this sort of thing as his hexcrawls attest. I'm not the only one that thinks so.

If any of that sounds good to you, you should check it out. Certainly if you already have Blood & Treasure 2e, you'll want it.

Wandering the Planet of the Apes

"THE DESERT" 

Player Characters:
Jeff Call as Brock Irving
Jarrett Crader as Aurelius
Justin Davis as Conrad "Rip" Ripper
Lester B. Portly as Eddy Woodward
Jason Sholtis as Francis La Cava

Nonplayer Characters:
Morgan Farley as Ilpasa Elder
Gorilla Troopers
Ilpasa Tribesfolk

Synopsis: The astronauts and their chimpanzee friend set off across the desert in search of human tribes and discover hints of another enemy.

Commentary:
Leaving the Pax base at Carlsbad, the group was not completely certain of what particularly course south they should take. Eezaya had said his people lived along "the ancient border," but that was pretty nonspecific. They decided to return to their ship to survey from the air, even though they knew their fuel was low.

A roll on a slightly modified version of the X4: Master of the Desert Nomads random encounter table suggested an encounter with an enemy patrol: They found four gorilla troopers investigating the ship. As formulated a plan to deal with them, a strange mechanical sound and trail of black over the next hill got the gorilla's attention. They quickly rode off in pursuit.

Quickly, pre-packing the ship and taking off, the group wanted to see what the fuss was about. Flying low (burning more fuel) they saw a weird, smoke-belching contraption leveling an ape homestead little more than a mile from where they had landed. The gorillas rode toward it, but didn't get there until the thing had drove off into a wooded area in the direction of the Pecos River. The group debated whether to investigate that weirdness, but ultimately decided to fly on. The players that had been in the last session were concerned this was likely to be the mutants the Pax-droids had mentioned.

They fly out toward the west, looking for the Rio Grande. They find it and see what appear to be human settlements, based on the more primitive design. Landing at a flat part of the desert, Woodward doesn't get high enough on his piloting roll and winds up damaging one of the thrusters. It's probably repairable, though no one ever rolls to try and find out for certain.

Walking across the desert to the camp provokes another random encounter roll. This time a gorgon, for which a giant iguana is a good substitute.

LaCava reminds them all its herbivorous, and they give it wide berth.

The villagers are understandably wary, but hospitable (the flags on their flight suits help). There is a curious lack of warriors in their prime among them, which later they are told is due to the Mehi and their mutant allies.

The people call themselves the Patryot Nation and revere the ancient American flag and apparently the King James Bible. This particular tribe is the Ilpassa. Eezaya is of the more ape-hating Tehis.

The Ilpassa Elder they speak with is fatigued by their antics, but seems fooled by their passing off a spacesuit-clad Aurelius as their "grandfather."

In the end, the group isn't interested in the plight of the Ilpasa, and their fight with the mutants. They head out South along the river to find the Tehi.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Legend of Yggdrasil

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

Storm: The Legend of Yggdrasil (1981) (part 5)
(Dutch: De Legende van Yggdrasil)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Kelvin Gosnell

In the arena, Storm, Ember, and the dinos are encircled by horsemen with lances, waiting to charge. Storm pays them little heed as he investigates the large metallic dome at the center. It's made of the same material as the teleportation pads--and it has the tyrannosaur symbol on it!

Storm has Wagnar press his warrior emblem into engraving. A door opens and our heroes slip inside before the horsemen can get to them. A robot greets them on the inside and activates a holographic projector that reveals a startling history.

His creators were a peaceful race who found themselves beseiged by barbarians 1100 years ago. They used a time machine to bring dinosaurs from the past, then from that stock create a race of saurian warriors. Now they had a defense against the barbarians, but realizing the days of peace were over, they decided to leave the Earth and their creations behind.

Shocked by these revelations, the dino folk want to know who Yggdrasil is, if  humans were their creators. The robot presses a few buttons and reveals a tyrannosaur in a stasis field. This is their Yggdrasil: the genetic progenitor of their race.

Wag-Nar is shocked. Their god is a monster! He does have time to fully digest these revelations as the dome has more visitors. The traitorous priest used his medallion to open the dome and brought the humans with him. I fight breaks out and in the melee:

"Yggdrasil" is released. The tyrannosaur goes on a rampage. The priest is devoured by his own "god," who them breaks out of the dome. Ember, Storm, and Wag-Nar face the dinosaur in the arena. Only Wag-Nar is strong enough to deliver the killing blow:

Wag-Nar is fatally wounded, too. He asks Storm and Ember to find a safe place for his people. Storm promises he will. Fortuitously, Storm's ship arrives. He gives it to the robot and the dino folk. He and Ember are going to take the energy bridge to Antarctica--and the time machine.

THE END

Serpent Men in the Garden

"In those days the serpent went upright like a man, nor was he exactly nonhuman in shape, but his beauty was a different from a man's as day is from night. He was lithe and gorgeously scaled and by standards a supremely handsome, supremely male creature."
- C.L. Moore, "Fruit of Knowledge"

In my post on the demi-humans of the pre-Flood world. I forgot the Serpents. As you may recall from the temptation of Eve in the Book of Genesis, Serpents had limbs and come talk Sounds like a Howardian Serpent Man to me.

Getting cursed by God and loosing his limbs suggests (to me at least) variable levels of snake-ness among later serpent descendants--something like the Yuan-ti. Conflation with the Snake Men of Masters of the Universe is done at your own discretion.

Some Counter-factual Covers I Forgot

After Monday's post, I realize I hadn't tagged a series of fake covers I did a few months ago for our Hydra Cooperative products in the style of Mayfair's Role-Aids line:

Here's Mortzengersturm with a Michael Whelan cover. I was never completely satisfied with the font, but I didn't just want to use the one that will be on the actual cover.

This one all goes together nicely, though I'm afraid it doesn't necessarily reflect the contents of Operation Unfathomable well. The artist is Paul Lehr.

Fever-Dreaming Marlinko gets a bit more acid fantasy with a Gene Szfran cover. It's also got the most complicated logo of all of them.

Misty Isle of the Eld gets more mysterious with a Bruce Pennington cover. I used the same font Luka employed on the real cover (Prisma), and I think it works just as well here.

Kill 6 Billion Demons

Chances are, you've heard of Kill 6 Billion Demons the fantasy webcomic by ABADDON (Tom Parkinson-Morgan). What you may not know is that Book 1 is now available in hard copy from Image. The author says it's inspired by his "love of heavy metal and awesome French fantasy comics" but there also seems to be a fair amount of Gnosticism and bit of Hindu iconography.

Allison Ruth is about to have sex for the first time with her boyfriend, when strange beings appear. One puts some sort of key into Allison's head and the others kidnap her boyfriend. Allison is sent to Throne, the ancient city at the center of the multiverse. With help of an angel peacekeeper she must keep her self alive and find away to rescue her boyfriend. 

The universe and its mythology are complex and rich. It perhaps rivals the world of Smylie's Artesia in that regard, though it has a very different style and tone--more akin to Prophet, perhaps. Comparisons to Exalted would not be unwarranted, though mainly in its dealings with an exotic world full of gods and demons. It's definitely worth a look.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Legend of Yggdrasil

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

Storm: The Legend of Yggdrasil (1981) (part 4)
(Dutch: De Legende van Yggdrasil)
Art by Don Lawrence & Script by Kelvin Gosnell

Going down into the subterranean complex, Storm and the others find an ancient teleportation station. (Apparently, they had those in Storm's time as he recognizes it immediately. Maybe he's seen one since arriving in the future.) A map shows them they can go to Sydney, which they are sure is the city in the South. The Priest is worried about the age of the equipment, but Storm says they have to risk it.

The group teleports--and finds themselves underwater! Luckily, it's not too deep, and they are able to swim to the surface. They see the lights of the "modern" City of the South nearby.

As they sneak into the city, Storm notices the Priest has disappeared. He thinks he didn't make it, but the other dinos aren't so sure. Turns out they are right, as elsewhere the Priest is brought before the human authority in the city after being captured. He gladly agrees to lead the humans to Storm and the others on the condition he gets to see Storm and Ember tortured to death!

Storm and the others try to keep a low profile. He and Ember have been going around the city is disguise, and so far they've only learned that they are being searched for.  When a drunken reveler stumbles into them, the authorities are soon alerted. They run, but are found on a roof by a strange flying fortress. Wag-Nar throws a chimney at it destroying it.

It turns out to have been a trap. The Priest and his new friends fire a net from another flying fortress coming up from behind, enveloping our heroes. The authorities haul them off.

After some time in a cell, they are marched out into a large arena do fight to the death!

TO  BE CONTINUED