The Howling Dark

Bedlam is one of the worst duties you can pull. Some guys think the Company's punishing them, but that would require them to take notice of us, wouldn't it?

Anyway, only the small ships go to Bedlam and they slow down toward the end so you spend longer in sleep than on a lot of runs. They have to do it that way, because Bedlam is all inside. You drop out into a big cavern. It's all caves and passages. If there's a surface or a single star in that whole reality, nobody has seen it.

The Company and other corporate partners are mining that rock. That part's not too bad. Gravity pulls you toward it, like somehow you were inside a rotating hab and it's all spin gravity, only it isn't spinning. It's weird, but no weirder than other places. What's bad about Bedlam, what drives the miners and support staff crazy, are the winds and the dark.

No sun, no stars. No light. Except for the lightning we put in, it's totally black. 

And those winds--they don't make any sense. Where are they coming from? Where do they go to? They come screaming through those big tunnels and its like a banshee behind you. You can't hear anything. Can't think even. People go deaf from it, true, but the ear protection helps with that part. There's something else, though. The tech guys say it's infrasound--sound so low you can't hear it with the ears. It gets in your head, though. Effects the brain. Causes paranoia, hallucinations. Drives people crazy.

At least they say it's infrasound that does it. I wonder. Ask anybody that's been there are they'll tell you the whole place is thick with, well, malice. I think that place hates us, and it's out to get us all.

Weird Revisited: Mystery House

This post first appeared almost 10 years ago, February 6, 2012...

It's most often found at the end of a stretch of dirt road, be it along a lonely bayou in the South, perched precariously on a ridge in the Smaragdines, or rising like a mirage out of the hardpan in the West. Those that seek it seldom find it without magic, but the lost are somehow drawn to it. However visitors arrive, few can forget the sprawling mansion known as the Mystery House.

One story says that Hulysses Mulciber, heir to the Mulciber Repeating Arms Company, was troubled by nightmares of a gaunt gunslinger riding ahead of an army of the ghosts who had died due to his family’s rifles. A medium told him that he should build a house designed to confuse and confound the spirits to escape the wrath of the Spectre of the Gun (as the medium named the gunslinger) and his vengeful army. Another less fanciful story holds he began the house as an elaborate gift to his wife who was angry over his philandering. Whatever the reason for its construction, records agree that building originally began in the Smaragdines.

The house even as conceived twisted and turned back on itself. It was almost a maze--and that was before it gained a life of its own. Hulysses didn’t live to see it; he died of blood poisoning following an accidental shooting in a hunting accident. The weapon that did the deed was, of course, one of his own company’s manufacture. His wife Ansonia, fervent believer in the reality of the grim Spectre, completed the project and paid numerous thaumaturgists (real and otherwise) to lay all sorts of protections on the house. And construction continued.

Whatever protection conferred to the house didn’t extend to Ansonia. She died of thirst, having gone mad and gotten lost in her own home. It was shortly after her death that the house disappeared from its original lot.

There are some stories of treasures in the house, mostly the mundane riches of the Mulcibers, but most who seek it do so out of curiosity. Most who find it, though, didn’t intend to. Those that have been there and survived report doors to nowhere, hallways that turn back on themselves, and rooms that shift. The stale air is filled with the low, arthritic creaks and groans of the house twisting and rearranging itself, and the distant sound of heavy footsteps--and jangling spurs.

A Roadside Picnic Discussion

A couple of weeks ago, Anne of DIY & Dragons and I had a conversation on science fiction novel Roadside Picnic and the ways it resembled and didn't resemble D&D. She posted that conversation over on her blog.

Wednesday Comics: DC, May 1981 (wk 1 pt 1)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! I'm a couple of days later than my usual Wednesday post, but I'm looking at the comics at newsstands on the week of  February 5, 1981. 

Batman #335: Wolfman's "Lazarus Affair" storyline comes to a close. Batman agrees to join Ra's to save the lives of his friends, but nobody believes it, including Ra's. He shows Batman the Lazarus Pit and explains who it brings immortality. Again, al Ghul asks him to join him, but Batman refuses and a fight breaks out. Al Ghul's hulkish goons bring Batman down, and Ra's sends him to be converted into one of those goons. Meanwhile, the other heroes and Talia break loose. They arrive in time to rescue Batman. Talia is shot by one of al Ghul's minions. She's placed in the Lazarus Pit. Once she's saved, Batman and the Demon's Head have their one-on-one combat, and the others (except Talia) leave them to it. Ultimately, al Ghul tumbles into the pit, but he comes out on fire and still looking to fight. Batman knocks him into the pit again. He and Talia escape in a helicopter as the island explodes behind them. Looks like Ra's stays dead until July of '82.

DC Comics Presents #33: It's Conway's turn to get script help from Roy Thomas. They team Superman up with Captain Marvel with Buckler/Giordano on art. Superman finds his powers and costumes switched with the Big Red Cheese. Both heroes have to go through their day coping with having different powers. Mxyzptlk is to blame, and in the end it's revealed that he's in cahoots with Mr. Mind. 

The "Whatever Happened to.." backup  features a Star Hawkins story by Tiefenbacher and Saviuk. Star solves a big case and retires with a large reward. He marries Stella Sterling, and Ilda marries Automan, who makes a guest appearance.

Flash #297: Bates gives us a weird story here, sort of made weirder, I think, by Infantino's art. Captain Cold has reformed and is fighting crime, but the Flash doesn't trust him. It turns out Cold's change is genuine; he reformed for his new actress girlfriend. When he discovers that girlfriend is using his outfit and gun to commit crimes for which he'll get blame, he goes for a murder/suicide thing--maybe. Somehow, he ties them both up (seems fishy to me) and hangs them inside rings of "cold fire" to quick freeze them for eternity. The Flash shows up and rescues them. In the B plot, Barry Allen's parents come to town. As his Dad is expounding on how "tough love" led them to ignore their widowed and grieving son's entreaties to visit until he had made peace with Iris's death, they get in a car accident and fall over a cliff. With his mother in a coma and likely to be hospitalized for a while, his Dad comes to leave with Barry. His father's thoughts reveal he's in Central City to "end the Flash" in "the most horrible demise imaginable." Now that's a cliffhanger!

The Firestorm backup has the hothead clashing with Multiplex, who is able to create duplicates. Interestingly (and unlike most duplication powers) Multiplex's duplicates get smaller if he creates a lot of them, so he also has kind of a shrinking power.

Ghosts #100: I hoped you liked the "Ghost Gladiator" from last issue, because that guy is all over this! All the stories feature him except the last one, and all the stories are written by Kashdan, with only the non-gladiator story drawn by Bright instead of Carillo. A archeologist is haunted by the gladiator in the ruins of Pompeii, but it turns out his assistant has promised the ghost release in return for the haunting. The archeologist frees the ghost and deals with the assistant. In WWII, the ghostly gladiator helps the Allies defeat Germans planning to destroy Pompeii's ruins. In the final gladiator story, the spirit saves the great-granddaughter of the archeologist in the first story when a thief threatens her while trying to steal Pompeiian artifacts from a museum.

In the last story, the leader of an outlawed democratic movement faces death in a caricature Middle Eastern country. First though, his hands are cut off. That night, the evil ruler is strangled to death by spectral hands. Probably just a coincidence.

G.I. Combat #229: The first Haunted Tank story has Jeb and crew trying to fulfill the wish of a dying Italian and his granddaughter that he be able to hear the bell of the Abbey on Mt. Cassino one last time before he dies. This involves driving into German occupied territory being bombed by the Allies. In the end, a dying German sniper falling from the bell tower gives the old man his wish. In the O.S.S. story by Kanigher and Cruz, an O.S.S. agent and a Norwegian woman, Ingrid, are sent to Norway to make contact with her brother, a resistance fighter named Lars, and together take out a German jet field. When the Germans are on to them at every turn, the agent believes Lars is a traitor, but it turns out Ingrid is. She dies with the destruction of the German air field. 

Kasdan and Barcasio tell a story from the perspective of a pair of binoculars. In Kashdan's second effort with Vicatan, a captain climbing up to a Nazi-occupied castle substitutes the corpse of a German soldier on his climbing line to make good his escape. In occupied France, the resistance kills the occupying troops with poisoned meat in a yarn by Allikas and Sangalang. The final ridiculous and possibly offensive Haunted Tank story has the crew encountering a shambling, malnourished group of men in hospital clothes--but they're willing to pick up guns and kill Nazis like anyone else. The crew gives them some candy and follows them to their destination: a psychiatric hospital.

Jonah Hex #48: An old friend from Hex's scout days shows up to request Hex help him deal with the Crow on his trail who want to kill him. Back in the day, Hex saved the man from torture by the Paiutes who had wrongly blamed him for the death of a young girl. It turns out that Hex is also acquainted with the Crow chief who reveals his friend isn't so innocent in this case and has committed murder. Faced with turning his friend over for torture, Hex instead shoots and kills him himself. 

In the backup, we've said good-bye to Scalphunter and hello to El Diablo, by Skimmer and Andru/DeZungia, who hasn't appeared since 1976. El Diablo's thing is that he's Lazarus Lane, who was nearly killed by a gang of thieves and left in a coma, but a Native American shaman, Wise Owl, revived him to a sort of sleepwalking Old West avenger, El Diablo. In this story, a robber follows El Diablo home and tries to make Wise Owl give "control" of Lazarus to him, but that doesn't work out so well in the end. Nothing special, but I like it better than Scalphunter.

Justice League of America #190: Conway's story opens with the uncontrolled Leaguers getting the grim message from an admiral that the government intends to destroy New York City to contain Starro. They go into action to prevent that from happening. Meanwhile, Red Tornado, who has only been feigning Starro's control makes a break for it. As the League infiltrates the city and tries to keep Starro's forces from escaping, we find Flash and Zatanna are still in turmoil over their attraction, and Zatanna has the added issue of having some trouble with her spells. The little boy from the prologue last issue has accidentally discovered that the cold weakens Starro's control. The League uses this information to free their friends, and Firestorm and Green Lantern team-up to freeze Starro. Buckler's art is uneven here, which I blame on Smith's inks, but the Brian Bolland cover (only his 6th for DC) is great.

In the Shadow of the Space Gods

Amrit is a fluid substance found within the spacetime called Asgard. In its found state it is a thick, clear fluid containing a faint, white, internal luminescence. Amrit is psychoactive, leading to intense entheogenic effects, but in a refined form its constituents are an essential component of rejuvenation fluids, anti-aging compounds, and thousands of other medical uses. 

Your mission is insert into Asgard and retrieve as much amrit as you can without inviting the attention of the local inhabitants or otherwise impairing the safety of your team or causing the loss of Company equipment.

Local Reality: Volume relatively small, perhaps no larger than a jovian planet. No breathable atmosphere. 

Largest observed body is an irregular asteroid, estimated to to be 640 km along it's semimajor axis/widest diameter, and approximately 27 km along a perpendicular axis. Appearance likened to a mountain floating in space. Several structures or settlements are visible on the surface. Asteroid is surrounded by an undulating amrit fluid disk (in fact, actually a sphere, but with its greatest concentration in the disk), perhaps 1 km thick at the asteroid, and tapering toward the periphery.  Fluid is clear but slightly luminescent, possibly from contain organism.

Inhabitants: Amrit fluid disk appears to be inhabited by various lifeforms perhaps analogous to marine life on terrestrial worlds. The asteroid body appears to be inhabited by giant, luminous humanoid forms (approximately 500 m tall) that appear to be dressed in some sort of armor or environmental suit (though the possibility remains this is some sort exoskeleton). Their number is variable, with two being the minimum observed and six being the maximum. The giants spend most of their time immobile. but they have been observed to walk short distances or raise their limbs or gesture. They do appear to broadcast to each other, tight beam, along a psychic frequency. This communication resists translation. Attempts to do so have resulted in AI or biologic analysts developing intense religious mania.

The structures on the asteroid would only seem to serve the giants with difficulty, so it is felt they house smaller beings, or are not buildings at all.

Hazards: Simple observation of the asteroid and its inhabitants can lead to paralyzing, pathologic sense of wonder, akin to various psychosomatic culture shock syndromes known from Earth. At it's most intense (in perhaps 20-25% of observers) this can take the form of a transient psychosis like Jerusalem syndrome. Theogenic shielding and pre-medication can ameliorate these effects. Auditory hallucinations of a choir is often an early warning sign.

Fear (perhaps what could be termed "holy dread") often afflicts crew when they see the giants. This impairs mission function and team cohesion. Crewmembers have been known to mutiny under the intense belief that harvesting amrit is effectively sacrilege, and the "gods" (giants) might be wrathful. Reassurance that the giants have never been definitively shown to take direct action against harvester crews is likely to be of benefit without the activation of in-suit sedation.

Team leaders should be aware that indirect action by the giants has led to loss of crews by undetermined means. These losses have appeared to be preceded by the shift of the giant's attention to the crew's actions. Our best recommendation is to keep crew action routine and efficient, quelling any abnormal or "showy" behavior.

All The Lost Come to Mother

Here's the bad news: You're lost.

Faster-than-light travel is supposed to work like this: The ship's caster makes the sigils that get displayed on the ship's hull. The caster encodes multidimensional state vectors into a compressed, symbolic code so routing information can be read by the transdimensional machinery of an extinct, alien civilization allowing shortcuts through spacetime.

That’s how it’s supposed to work, and it works pretty well most of the time. 

There are the other times, though, when ships wind up someplace other than the intended destination or just disappears entirely. At times the casting is probably to blame; the internal state of the caster has always been a hard to control variable. Sometimes there's just a glitch--an act of God or gods in the machine, you might say.

You experienced one of those other times. You’re lost in a distant part of the multiverse, a long way in space and time from where you wanted to be or where you’re from. You're alive, which makes you better off than some, but the chances of you getting home again are slim.

Now here's a bit of good news: You've been found. A lot of the lost wind up limping into the Ring. Nobody knows why; something to do with local spacetime, I think. It's like the place where objects bouncing through the conduits come finally to rest. Anyway, Mother has taken you in, like she does all the lost ones that show up on her doorstep. This is Mother's station. 

Now, Mother opened the door, but you've got to find a way to make a life for yourself here. We all earn our keep. The Company will be glad to give you place to live, credits to spend, and a job to pay for both. You'll want to stay in this sector, it's mostly humans and humanoids--oxy-breathers from a rational, four dimensional universe--around here. The aliens in other parts of the station, well, you have to be prepared. And you won't be. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

The job? I'm not going to lie to you, it will be dangerous. It's important work, the Company will tell you that, but it doesn't always make sense from the boots on the ground perspective, you understand. You'll see a lot of weird stuff out there, but keep your head, do the work, and you'll come home. Probably.

This is a follow-up to this post.

GRIDSHOCK 20XX

Truthfully, a lot of times I back a Kickstarter, particularly something like a Zinequest thing, I am vaguely disappointed when it finally arrives. Usually, it isn't that the actually content disappoints particularly (though sometimes it does), but it's just that having the object in my hands fails next to the expectations from all those months ago when I backed it.

Not so with GRIDSHOCK 20XX! 

What's GRIDSHOCK 20XX it's a post-apocalyptic, superhero setting with a 80s future aesthetic. It's a bit anime and manga, a bit Rifts, a bit American and British sci-fi comics of the mid to late 80s. It runs on the superhero game ICONS, but the setting is the real draw.

This is not a review. The author is a friend of mine, and I did some editing and playtesting on it. But if anything, I think that sort of familiarity would have made the final receipt of the books as perfunctory. Not so! Chris Vermeren's layout and design, and the art of Grey Wizard and Steven de Waele, work so well with Paul's vision of the world, that it's like finally seeing it the way it was meant to be.

Plus the printing is high quality, too.

Sure, you could say these perhaps stretch the definition of a zine--but they are not the product of a corporate environment. This wasn't made by committee, but rather it's the product of talented individuals.

Hit Paul up on twitter and see if you can convince him to do a second printing!