Warlord Wednesday: The Hunter

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"The Hunter"

Warlord (vol. 1) #13 (June-July 1978)

Written and Illustrated by Mike Grell

Synopsis: Morgan, Mariah and Machiste trudge through knee-deep water in a swamp, pushed on by Morgan's desire to reach the Great Fire Mountain--and beyond that Shamballah, and his beloved Tara. Without warning, a long-necked saurian raises from the water and attacks. After a short battle, the beast is slain when Morgan puts his sword through its skull. As the three move on, Morgan muses that the creature was defeated easier than he expected. Mariah quips that maybe he has "a guardian angel."

A ways down the trail, Morgan finds proof of his suspicions.  A bullet casing shows his guardian angel has "traded his harp for a rifle."

As they discuss what this means, an unseen, would-be sniper gets them in his sights. Under fire, they flee--as the hunter expected. Morgan trips a wire, and a heavy log swings into them, knocking them unconscious.

When Morgan awakens, he's facing Stryker, the "Company" man who tried to take Mariah and him in back in Peru. Stryker lost an eye and his job in the wake of those events, and he wants revenge on the man he holds responsible. He coerced Professor Lockley into telling him the incredible truth of where Morgan and Mariah had gone, then spent a year looking for the entrance to Skartaris. Since arriving, he's been tracking Morgan.

Stryker's tied Machiste and Mariah to a tree and rigged it with C-4, and intends to play a game with Morgan for the three's lives. He's left the detonator, which is the only way of deactivating the bomb Mariah and Machiste are tied to, about a mile upriver. Detonation will take place in an hour. Morgan gets his sword, his knife, the promise his gun is somewhere along the way--and a five minute headstart. Stryker plans to hunt him, and the only way to save his friends is to play the game.

Morgan takes off running, and almost immediately triggers a snare. He cuts himself free, ignoring Stryker's taunts--but now he moves ahead more cautiously.

Mariah asks Stryker why he's doing this since he knows Morgan's no traitor. Stryker lists the injuries he suffered--which he blames on Morgan--and says that he had been told he would never walk without a cane again. What kept him going was hate.

Morgan encounters a series of cunning traps in the jungle. He avoids a large board full of spikes, but gets stuck in the thigh by a smaller one. His attention concentrated on man-made danger, he almost falls prey to a poisonous snake, but manages to cleave its head in two with his sword.

Finally, he reaches a clearing where he sees his gun atop a rock. Morgan knows its likely to be a trap, but he has no choice if he's to save his friends. Morgan dashes across the clearing under a hail of wooden darts, many piercing him. He lunges for his gun, but we see that it has been booby-trapped with C-4.

From a distance, Stryker sees the explosion and smiles. He makes his way to the detonator, thinking to go ahead and blow up Machiste and Mariah without waiting for the time to run out. He finds a grim-faced Morgan, stuck with darts and bleeding, holding the detonator. Morgan detected the trap because of the rubbery, unnatural smell of the C-4--very out of place in the jungle.

Morgan tells Stryker the first rule of Skartaris: "always expect the unexpected." Before Stryker can raise his rifle to fire, Morgan has drawn his pistol and killed him--putting a bullet through his eyepatch.

Things to Notice:

• Once again, the cover scene doesn't quite jive with events in the issue.
• The swamp seems a little shallow for the size of the saurian that attacks the heroes.
• Stryker is the first villian outside of Deimos to return for a rematch with Morgan.

Where It Comes From:
The protagonist being hunted like an animal is a common action/adventure plot, deriving from the 1924 short-story "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell. The story has been adapted, either directly or loosely, in a number of films and TV series, beginning with 1932 with the movie of the same name. Interestingly, a 1967 episode of Gilligan's Island that spoofs the trope shares the title of the "The Hunter" with this issue.

C-4 is a plastic explosive more powerful than TNT.  It apparently releases toxic fumes when burned, but nevertheless small amounts of it were supposedly used by troops in Vietnam to heat rations, as it burns slowly when lit by a flame.

Many of the traps employed by Stryker in this issue resemble those utilized by the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War.

Tall Tales

"There were giants in the earth in those days."
- Genesis 6:4

And not just in those days:

In 1884, a skeleton 7 feet 6 inches long was found in a massive stone structure likened to a "temple chamber" in a mound in Kanawha County, West Virginia.

In 1925, amateurs excavating an Indian mound at Walkerton, Indiana, uncovered the skeletons of eight ancient humans measuring from eight to almost nine feet in height. All eight had been buried in “substantial copper armor.”

The Lovelock Reviewer-Miner reported in June of 1931 that two large skeletons were found in the Humboldt lake bed near Lovelock, Nevada. The first of these found measured 8 1/2 feet tall and appeared to have been wrapped in a gum-covered fabric similar to "the Egyptian manner."

The San Diego Union (August 1947) reported that F. Bruce Russell, a retired Ohio physician, had discovered a caves underneath Death Valley containing the mummified remains of men 8-9 feet tall, clothed in gray material "taken from an animal unknown today" accompanied by hieroglyphics and depictions of prehistoric animals.

Regardless of the veracity of these stories, if real-world North America can have legends of giant-folk, then the Strange New World of the City, certainly has them for real.

"It is only within the last few years that most people have stopped thinking of the West as a new land. I suppose the idea gained ground because our own especial civilisation happens to be new there; but nowadays explorers are digging beneath the surface and bringing up whole chapters of life that rose and fell among these plains and mountains before recorded history began. . . . We hear rumours of still older things, too . . ."
- H.P. Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop, "The Mound"

Before the arrival of the people considered by the explorers from the Old Countries to be the "natives" of the new continent, there was a more advanced civilization in the New World. Perhaps they were descedants of an even more ancient race from a land called Meropis, now vanished beneath the sea. Or maybe they came from another world. Whatever their origins, these Ancients, as they are now known, built the underground complexes explored by adventurers, and buried their dead in great mounds.

And they were giants. Or at least giantish, with males being perhaps eight feet tall--though their were some populations that were even taller. Their rumored degenerate descendants, the hill-billy giants of the Smaragdines, are taller still--brutish males being just shy of ten feet tall, and their statuesque females somewhat under nine.

But it's the Ancients that concern us here. They're considered extinct, but perhaps there are lost cavern-cities where they can still be found. They were rumored to be masters of great magic, as well.  Perhaps some found a way to preserve themselves in some sort of ageless sleep, waiting for the time when they could reclaim their rulership of this land.

ANCIENTS (GIANTISH MEN)
Ability Score Requirements: STR 9, CON 9
Ability Score Modifiers: STR +1, DEX -1
Ability Min/Max: STR 7/19 DEX 3/18 CON 7/18 INT 3/18 WIS 3/18 CHA 3/18
Allowed Classes: Fighter, Magic-User or Cleric (Unlimited), Thief (8th), Assassin (9th), Ranger (10th)

No Really, It's a Holiday!

As a state employee, I've got a holiday today for Confederate Memorial Day--not to be confused, of course, with regular Memorial Day.

So, in the spirit of the day, here are some former Confederate soldiers of note:

John Carter, Warlord of Mars

Jonah Hex, disfigured bounty-hunter

Ghost of J.E.B. Stuart, haunter of tanks

Strange Relations

This week, it was reported that a team working on Neanderthal genome sequencing efforts found that all modern human populations, outside of Sub-Saharan Africans, share some Neanderthal genetic material--perhaps 1 to 4 percent of their total genome. This suggests some interbreeding went on sometime before 45,000 years ago--after the first human exodus from Africa, but before the split that led to groups spreading out over Eurasia.

Maybe its just me, but I think this has some gaming applications. I've already suggested that dwarves are Neanderthals uplifted by an alien intelligence--at least in my campaign setting. Let's add to this idea the background of Ska from Jack Vance's Lyonesse Trilogy--who hold themselves to be the only pure humans because they believe all other populations to be interbred with Neanderthals--and apply the resultant mixture to the standard D&D implied setting, and see what we get...

Maybe elves represent "pure" humanity undiluted by interbreeding with other hominids? They never left the ancestral homeland, whether in some Uttermost West, or elsewhere. Why not the South where the ancestral population might be darker-skinned (and perhaps call themselves "the First Born" for a nice Burroughs Easter egg)? Then, "humans" could be a more mixed bunch, descendants of folk who left the ancestral homeland and encountered other groups. Dwarves would still be "purer" Neanderthal descendants. This would nicely set elves and dwarves up as disparate groups, but humans would share a bit of both.

We don't have to stop there. Orcs could be descendants of another hominid species entirely, as might halflings--or maybe halflings are just an interesting human sub-population, whichever. The point is, all humanoids and demi-humans could be woven into a riotous fantasy hominid family tree.

Kill the Gods and Take Their Stuff

In comic book parlance, I presented the "Modern Age" version of four deities yesterday--though of course, they've been subsumed under the two primary faiths. Today, I'm going to provide AD&D Deities & Demigods stats for the original (the "Golden Age", if you will) versions of a couple of them as created by my cousin, Tim (my first DM) back in eighties.

 I toyed with the idea of scanning these pages, but they weren't really legible that way, so transcription had to be the way. Unfortunate, that--because you guys miss out on my cousin's "outsider art" illustrations that accompanied the stats.

So, here's more "setting archeology."  The stats are presented unchanged from the twenty plus year-old documents, so I'm afraid I can't explain the rationale for some of them...

ETERNUS (Æternus)
greater god
AC: -12
Move: Infinite
HP: 400
#Atk.: 2
Dmg/Atk: 6-60, or by weapon type
Spec. Atk: see below
Spec. Def.: see below
Size: L (9')
Magic Resistance: 90%
Alignment: Lawful neutral
Worshippers' Align.:Neutral or good
Symbol: golden helmet
Plane: Twin Paradises
Cleric/Druid: 20th lvl. cleric
Fighter: 20th lvl. ranger
MU/Illusionist: 20th lvl. MU
Thief/Assassin: nil
Monk/Bard: nil
Psionic Ability: I
S: 25 (+7,+14) I:25 W:25 D:20 C:20 Ch:25

Eternus can not be harmed by any form of attack using physical means, except barehanded. Eternus can shape-change at will. He can shoot rays of blue light from each hand that can polymorph other, condemn forever to the astral plane, cause 5-100 damage, or completely heal all wounds, at his choice.

CAIRN (Kaarn)
greater god
AC: -6
Move: 15"
HP: 375
#Atk.: 3
Dmg/Atk: 6-60, or by weapon type
Spec. Atk: see below
Spec. Def.: see below
Size: L (15')
Magic Resistance: 70%
Alignment: Neutral evil (chaotic)
Worshippers' Align.: all evil and murderers
Symbol: black battle axe and sickle
Plane: Pandemonium
Cleric/Druid: 15th lvl. in each
Fighter: 25th lvl. ranger
MU/Illusionist: 10th lvl. in each
Thief/Assassin: nil
Monk/Bard: 15th lvl. bard
Psionic Ability: I
S: 25 (+7,+14) I:25 W:20 D:25 C:25 Ch:25

The mere sight of this god (at Cairn's wish) can cause immediate and irrevocable death (no saving throw) to any non-divine being. He can cause plagues, drought, or floods at a whim. He can shoot from his palm a ray of disintegration as a 30th level magic-user. Moreover, any steel weapon striking the god does double damage to its wielder.

Old Gods Not Gone

I've written before about the two major religions of the continents of Arn and Western Erida in my current campaign world. Both are built on the bones of older religions--most centrally the polytheistic faith of Old Thystara. The "Old Gods" of Thystara were held to be primal beings, older than the universe--not mere Ascended  from a known point in history. The oldest of these Old Gods still worshipped will concern us today.

Here they are, as they're known on the continent of Arn:

Æternus
"The Overlord"; Supreme Ruler of the Gods, God of Just Rulership, Law and an Ordered Cosmos; Shield Against Chaos
Æternus is seen as sanctifying appropriate authority. When even God-King Ahzuran took his thrown, he bowed to the sun symbol of the Overlord atop the staff of the primate of the Æternian church. He's often invoked in the preamble to any solemn oath.
Depiction: A tall, regal man clad in a golden helm and blue armor, with a sun symbol on his chest.
Symbol: A ten-pointed sun emblem on a blue field, or a golden helm.
Clerical Strictures: Clerics in the Overlord's service may wear any kind of armor, but prefer the mace as a weapon. Most go into battle wearing great helms in homage to their deity.

Kaarn
"The Horned One"; The Black Rider, God of Death, War, and Plagues
Kaarn is fundamentally the lord of things that bring death. His bannermen are Terror, Hurt, Dread, and Woe. The call of his hounds is said to cause a wasting disease in those who hear it. He is held to be shunned by the other gods, but is worshipped by humans to appease his godly wrath.
Depiction: A gaunt giant clothed in black. His head is a human skull with blood red stag antlers. Less commonly, he appears as a muscular man in black armor, his face hidden inside a horned helm.
Symbol: An antlered skull, a red right hand, a black battle axe (in his aspect as war god); a black sickle (as lord of death).
Clerical Strictures: Clerics of the Horned One seek to slay foes in battle, and in doing so appease Kaarn and delay the annihilation of humanity. They wear black robes and/or black armor, sometimes with golden, death's head masks.

Illumé
God of Light, Communication, and Inspiration
Illumé is a Promethean figure, symbolizing the bringing of light into the world--both in the literal and figurative senses of illumination. He represents sudden, mystical insight in contrast to Seiptis's hard-won erudition. His flaming sword, Adjaskar, cleaves through lies and veils of misunderstanding.  He is invoked at the beginning of negotiations and at the signing of treaties.
Depiction: A lean, human male with a crown of flames, bearing a flaming sword. It is held to be he who first greeted Ahzuran into the ranks of the gods after his Ascension.
Symbol: a flaming sword, or a flaming crown.
Clerical Strictures: Illumé's clerics see violence as secondary to parley, though they are not pacifists by any means.  They are charged to act as mediators and end conflicts both great and small whereever they can.  Certain monastic orders of his priesthood are also purveyors of psychedelic fungi.

Seiptis
"The Wise"; God of Knowledge and Truth, The Divine Archivist 
Seiptis is a seeker after, and preserver of, knowledge. He also tests the knowledge of others--folklore has it, he forced Ahzuran to submit to a rigorous examination on the fundamental rules of the universe after his Ascension.
Depiction: Seiptis is depicted as a muscular man in a loincloth (like an ancient slave-scribe), with a owl's head, and glowing pupil-less eyes.
Symbol: An owl's head on a white field, or a statuette of an owl in precious metals.
Clerical Strictures: All priests of Seiptis must have some area of scholarly pursuit so that they may serve their god by increasing the knowledge of mankind.

Warlord Wednesday: Trilogy

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"Trilogy"

Warlord (vol. 1) #12 (April-May 1978)

Written and Illustrated by Mike Grell

Synopsis: Mariah is journaling in the port city of Bakwele when Machiste finds her. The two go in search of Morgan (who said he was going to "scare up a martini"). They find him in the middle of a barroom brawl.

Machiste heartily approves, while Mariah (predictably) does not. She wonders aloud why she followed Morgan to Skartaris, but doesn't like it when Machiste intimates that it might be because he's a man--and she's a woman.

Mariah (changing the subject) asks why Machiste, a king, leaves his kingdom and follows Morgan. Machiste says his people are capable of ruling themselves, but tells a story to explain why Morgan commands his loyalty. After they escaped the gladiatorial school, Morgan united the undisciplined group into an army, forging them together with talk of liberty. On the day before a raid, a young boy, Aton, approached Morgan and asked to join the cause of freedom. Morgan is surprised to learn that the fame of his group and his message has spread. Morgan gently tells the boy that he's too young--there's time later to choose the bloody life of a warrior.

Aton hasn't gone far when he's attacked by a purple carnosaur. Morgan rushes to help, opening fire with his pistol. Enraged, the beast turns on him. Aton cuts its Achilles tendon, giving Machiste and Morgan time to kill it. Morgan, impressed, makes Aton his herald, outfitting him with a helmet, a banner, and a fine steed. He tells him to go out and proclaim the cause of liberty. Machiste arrives at the point of his story: Morgan is a dreamer.

Mariah wonders if she has misjudged Morgan because of their political differences. She relates her own story. Shortly after their arrival in Skartaris, she and Morgan happened upon a beautiful unicorn. Morgan tells her that the unicorn shows that Skartaris is a place where "all of men's dreams can come true." No sooner has he spoke, than primitives attack with arrows, and slay the unicorn to win the sacred power of its horn. Morgan is seized by rage. He attacks the hunting party, and kills them quickly. Then, Mariah watches as he kneels down beside the fallen unicorn and weeps.

Mariah suggests that he's a man of contrasts, beyond understanding. Machiste is about to reply, when they have to move to avoid a tavern brawler tossed in their direction. The fight finished, Morgan walks over to them. Mariah explains that they've been trying to figure him out.

Morgan, smiling, says they might as well stop trying. What makes a man give up his home and security for the life of a warrior and wanderer? Perhaps it's the thrill, he muses. He admits the life he's chosen is likely to be a short one, but it won't be dull.

Things to Notice:

• The scene depicted on the cover don't occur in the issue.
• The "Skartarian hieroglyphs" on the tavern's sign say "Crazy Earl's" in English.
• This is the first appearance of Aton, who later becomes a semi-regular. His next appearance is in issue #38.
• Is that Barney (or a close relative) that menaces Aton?

Where It Comes From:
The title "trilogy" refers to the three stories--and three insights into the man, Travis Morgan. Exploration of just who Travis Morgan is, particularly from the viewpoint of those around him, becomes one of Grell's primary concerns in the saga.  This is particularly apparent as he revisits the character and world the 1992 limited series, and in the new series, currently on-going.
Unicorns also make a several appearances in Grell-penned issues. They seem to represent the primeval beauty of Skartaris, and are often used,whether explicitly or implicitly, to contrast this aspect of Skartaris with its savagery--like in this issue.