Weird Revisited: Alternate Worldcrawl

The original version of this post appeared in 2015...

One of the complaints against the standard D&D Planes is that, while conceptually interesting perhaps, its hard to know what to do with them as adventuring sites. One solution would be to borrow a page from science fiction and comic books and replace them with a mutliverse of alternate worlds. These would be easy to use for adventuring purposes and could put an additional genre spin on the proceedings. Here are a few examples:

Anti-World: An alignment reversed version of the campaign setting. Perhaps humanoids are in ascendance and human and demihumans are marauding killers living underground.

Dark Sun World: In this world, the setting underwent a magical cataclysm in the past and is now a desert  beneath a dying sun.

Lycanthropia: The world is cloaked in eternal night and lycanthrope has spread to most of the population.

Modern World: This version has a technology level equal to our own (or at least the 1970s) and the PCs have counterparts who play adventurers in some sort of game.

Spelljammer World: A crashed spacecraft led to a magictech revolution and space colonization.

Western World: Try a little sixguns and sorcery and replace standard setting trappings with something more like the Old West.

Wednesday Comics: DC, February 1983 (week 2)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! Today, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands on the week of November 11, 1982. 

Batman #356:  After all the Catwoman business, Bruce and Vicki are still an item, but Vicki's work increasingly means Bruce only gets a limited amount of her time. After a date cut short, Bruce returns home and gets attacked by Alfred. Except it isn't the real Alfred, and Bruce wonders if somehow he imagined the whole thing. Meanwhile, Vicki gets done with her work and calls Wayne Manor only to find that Bruce hasn't returned home. It's all part of the overly elaborate revenge plot of Hugo Strange.

While the real Dick Grayson goes looking for Bruce, Bruce is attacked by a fake Grayson in the phony Wayne Manor. Injury to that Dick Grayson reveals it to be a robot. Bruce goes into the Batcave and he finds a cleanshaven Strange dressed as Batman. Strange reveals how he faked his death, then he gives Bruce a spare Batsuit so that they can settle the score once and for all. The two Bat-men duke it out, but Strange's ruthlessness momentarily gives him the upper hand. Robin appears in the Batcave and is confused at the sight of two Batmen. When Strange Bats commands him to kill the "fake" Batman, Robin realizes who's the real deal and turns against Strange. Not wanting to be taken in, Strange apparently blows himself up and the fake Wayne Manor.

Dick and Bruce return to their real home just in time to save Alfred from a final Bruce Wayne robot. I guess Conway didn't like the way Strange died the first time? It seems a lot of effort just to quickly kill him again. Of course, he'll be back, but not in a Conway story. 

Flash #318: Creed Phillips is starting to unravel it seems. He kills his Butler who discovers the Eradicator costume he left carelessly laying around, then he goes on live TV and outs himself as the deadly vigilante during a TV interview. It turns out the Eradicator and Creed personalities are somewhat separate, and the Eradicator one chooses to kidnap Fiona Webb as they flee the station. This is all sort of (perhaps unintentionally funny) because elsewhere in the issue Flash and the lunatic, wannabe hero Captain Invincible have been trying to figure out who Eradicator is--then the guy just reveals himself on TV. 

While Philips/Eradicator and Webb are in a cave outside the city, Flash and Invincible are searching Phillips' apartment, which has been rigged with a bomb booby trap. When the bomb is triggered, The Flash vibrates his molecules to become intangible, but the blast wave knocks him out, and he gets partially fused with the wall. Captain Invincible tries to help, but overestimates the necessary force in breaking the way, sending them both plummeting to the street, far down below.

We get a Creeper backup from Gafford and Gibbons. The Creeper prevents a mugging in Gotham City, as enforcer "Thumbs" Tamblin tries to collect an overdue payment from discredited doctor Ben Goldstein. Jack Ryder has a new job, so he leaves Gotham and catches a bus to Boston. His new boss, H.J. Harrigan, suggests he start with an investigation into Tamblin, who has also moved to Boston after getting involved with his former boss's daughter. Tamblin's new boss, Wesley Winterborne, sends him to collect some debts, but the Creeper interrupts. Tamblin's goon shoots the Creeper, who falls out of the window into the Charles River.

G.I. Combat #250: In the first Haunted Tank story, the crew has been told one member of their crew is going to be representing the armor division in a nationwide bond drive tour. Each member of the team believes they're the best and deserve to be chosen, but a day of the typical sort of fighting the tank gets into, they return to base and tell their commander he'll need to pick someone else, because everyone in their team is more important than in other. They act as one.

In the second Tank story, the crew picks up a Major Kendall, who had just escaped from the Germans with important information. Ultimately, The group has to split up, with Rick and Kendall running off to lure the Germans away. They walk into a trap at an abandoned mill, however, and the rest of the crew must come to the rescue.

There's an O.S.S. story by Kanigher and Cruz where an operative named Eagle is taken to a German POW campe where he hopes to ferret out a mole. It turns out to be a man the other prisoners believed was simple-minded and harmless. Then Kashdan and Ayers present the story of an experiment Sergeant in Vietnam who finally snaps under pressure, but in doing so he still inadvertently saves his unit. The last story relates to ANZAC coast-watchers and intelligence provided before the Battle of Midway.

Masters of the Universe #2: I bought this issue off the stands as a kid, I reviewed it here.

 

Saga of the Swamp Thing #10: Kay, now revealed as Helmut Kriptmann tries to force Swamp Thing and his allies to help in his quest to destroy Karen Clancy. When his psychic, Grossman, fails to hold him Kriptman, has to switch tactics and persuade them. Ultimately, they agree.

Meanwhile, Grasp and Sunderland discover that Liz Tremayne is still alive, and Kay is working on his own project. Grasp is ordered to hunt them down.

Feldner as able to fill Swamp and crew in on Karen's plans thanks to the period she had him captured. She needs the pendulum of Nazi occultist von Ruhnstedt who eventually died at Dachau. The group rushes there to find a hellish scene. Karen has raised an army of dead German soldiers while she flies overhead searching for Von Ruhnstedt. The undead occultist tells her that the pendulum is in the hands of a person with a collection of Nazi memorabilia in Berchtesgaden. Karen then destroys the entire camp in "an avalanche of psionic fury" and disappears.

When they've escaped the rubble, Kriptmann begs the others for assistance in stopping Karen. Barclay says that he wants nothing more to do with the sort of monster responsible for places like this. Kriptmann reveals that he wasn't a Nazi by showing the prisoner's tattoo on his arm.

In the Cavalieri/Carrillo Phantom Stranger backup, The Phantom Stranger and his ally are sentenced by living gargoyles to be killed by being crushed by the great clapper of the church's bell, but in a Raiders of the Lost Ark-ish turn, the two have to shut their eyes and not move as the power of God (I guess) punishes the gargoyles for their sacrilege.

New Teen Titans #28: Changeling continues his pursuit of the fugitive Terra. He finally captures her and brings her to Titans Tower, convinced the team can help her. Meanwhile, Brother Blood's cult strongholds are being systematically attacked and destroyed by the Brotherhood of Evil. 

While all this is going on, the other Titans pursue their private lives: Dick gets being kind of an ass to Kory; Donna meets Terry Long's ex-wife and young daughter for the first time, and it's a tense meeting; and Raven meditates. Kid Flash, Raven, and Cyborg are on hand when Changeling brings Terra in. After hearing how she had been forced to commit crimes by terrorists holding her parents, the rulers of the nation of Markovia, the Titans rush off to attack and subdue her tormentors but discover that the girl's parents have long since been killed. Changeling befriends Terra in her grief, but Raven keeps getting bad vibes about her.

Superman #380: Bates and Swan reveal the perils of time travel. Superman returning from a mission to the past and Superboy going home after a visit to the Legion of Super-Heroes. They both come across a strange gap in spacetime, and both make the unwise decision to fly straight through. They bump into each other and their consciousnesses get mixed up. While they are doing the usual heroics and trying to sort things out, but there's a man named Euphor who has to ability to absorb people's unhappiness. He's got ulterior motives, though, and plans use all of Metropolis' unhappiness to gain power.

The Gagged Quaklu

We did some in my Gnydrion setting this weekend in the area of the Lake of Vermilion Mists using the rules lite game Grok?! Most of the players had the game, but none of us had ever played it, so it was a good excuse to take it for a spin.

I quickly put together new Background and Asset tables, but it was a rush job, and something I'm probably revisit over time. Anyway, the players were:

Aaron as  Nortin Tauss, an arcane dabbler possessed of a vial of hwaopt intoxicant for some reason.
Andrea -  Yzma Vekna, teamster with poor hygiene and a blunderbuss.
Paul - Antor Hogus, skinny vagrant with a stun wand.

Yzma and Nortin arrived in Phaelorn Gap on the stage coach out of Flinterjay. (Yzma was driving, Nortin a passenger.) Antor was already in town, sleeping in the stables and doing odd jobs. They all intended to eventually make their way to the hippy spectacle of the Festival of the Hierodule in the vicinity of the Lake, but at the moment they were looking for lodging for the night.

Finding the hotel a bit pricey, Nortin, on recommendation of the local constabulary, sought a room at the more modestly priced (and appointed) boarding house of Milda Brept. While Nortin and Yzma discuss the hidden fees and riders associated with boarding with Matron Brept, Antor inquires if there is any work for him. Another stranger at the boarding house, one Kreik Gelmot, speaks up to offer him a minor commission.

In the boarding house's back yard, Gelmot explains that he has a quaklu (either a flightless bird with hands or a feathered theropod dinosaur with beak, depending on how you look at it, used as a riding animal) he wishes to part with. He wishes Antor to take the beast outside of town and make sure he doesn't return. Interestingly, the quaklu is muzzled, which isn't common. 

The three noted this as unusual and assumed something else was going on. Yzma examined the animal and found it to be sound to her experience eye for draught beasts. Nortin threatened to summon Shreev Molok. Fearing this potential income might be snatched from him, Antor quickly pulled up the stake and leaped upon the creatures back to ride away.

Gelmot was satisfied enough with this outcome and departed. Nortin and Yzma were still curious and followed on foot.

In the scrub outside of town, Antor removed the quaklu's gag. It was indeed one of those rare, atavistic specimens, capable of speech. It immediately began squawking that it had seen a murder!

Medioxumate Devils

 

Art by Ske Bozic

Zeniba Goll, called Zeniba the Shrewd, self-anointed Mayor-Prefect of  Wollusk is the leader of gang known as the Medioxumate Devils. It is through this group of cutthroats that she maintains her hold on the town and resists overthrow by the faction led by Sodmos Thalur the Vitner.

Pictured here: Kro, Skeesik Two-Knives, Zeniba, Chult Angmox, and Olma "Silence" Mondark.

I've been reading the rules lite rpg Grok?! recently, so here are Zeniba's stats in that:

ZENIBA

Traits: Aging, former bodyguard, gang boss, "The Shrewd", wants to run Wollusk

 Assets: Power Rod, leather armor, goon entourage, [+4 slots]

Wednesday Comics: DC, February 1983 (week 1)

My goal: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! Today, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands on the week of November 5, 1982. 

This week features a sort of 80s milestone. The "Meanwhile.." column appears for the first time. You can see the column from this month's comics here. There is a discussion of a History of the DC Universe series which sounds less like the series we got post-Crisis and more like Crisis on Infinite Earths itself which won't actually show up for a couple more years. Then, there are two Marvel/DC crossovers mentioned, one of which won't come along for 20 years and the other has yet to appear.

Wonder Woman #300: Nice wraparound cover, suitable for an anniversary issue, by Hannigan and Giordano. The interior uses quite a cadre of artists: Gene Colan, Ross Andru, Keith Giffen, Jan Duursema, Dick Giordano, Rich Buckler, and Keith Pollard, but it's the story by Roy and Danette Thomas that I have a problem with. Wonder Woman has been having bad dreams and awakens to see some kind of shadow creature looming near her. The 70s Sandman shows up and reveals it's a creature escaped from nightmare. He keeps promising she's okay now, but after she accepts Steve Trevors' proposal, and they start planning a wedding, the nightmares and anxiety just intensify.  Her nightmares all reveal sort of "What-Ifs?" (or perhaps Elseworlds) of alternate ways her meeting with Trevor and their subsequent relationship could have gone and ended up badly. In the end, it turns out the creature is Wonder Woman's own insecurities and doubts. She faces those with the help of Sandman. Trevor jilts her at the altar, ironically deciding he had feelings for Diana Prince (who is believed dead). The status quo is restored!

This probably read better in 1982, but in 2023 its problems are blatant. Primarily, it's that Wonder Woman is incredibly passive and reactive throughout the whole thing. She's literally being defeated by her own negative emotions. Sandman plays the "nice guy" creep, showing up with a pretense of helping, but later admitting to having been spying on her dreams ("to help") and being in love with her. Oh, and withholding information about the nature of the shadow being. After her marriage plan fails, he whisks her off to the dream world and assumes they'll start a relationship without any real consent from her. In the end, he recognizes his bad behavior, but it's a tepid admission and more importantly it still leaves Wonder Woman--the hero of the book--dazedly acquiescing to both the behavior and the apology. All this is particularly galling because this is a milestone issue and should be a celebration of the character,

Arak Son of Thunder #18: The trouble in Byzantium continues, courtesy of the Thomases and Gonzales/Alcala. Arak manages to escape from his bonds where Haakon and the treacherous Greeks have left him and battles to rescue the others from being consumed in Greek fire. He's help by Satyricus waking up and rousing the others. They manage to survive and save the Emperor and his mother, but Haakon escapes with a scholar than knows the secret of Greek Fire and hids for White Cathay. Irene gives Arak and crew a mission to follow Haakon back to White Cathay to retrieve Kallinikos or to kill him. A heretic Nestorian priest, Johannes, appears before the court and offers to help. The Byzantines want to kill him, but Arak defends them man who will serve as a guide. The four depart on their quest.

In the Valda backup, Greeramada needs the words of power from Malagigi to enact her evil plan for power, which he refuses to give. When the sorceress threatens to kill Valda, the wizard relents. Greeramada then leads Valda to the Mount of Martyrs to perform the resurrection spell. The spell appears to succeed when St. Denys appears carrying his own head. Valda manages to break free from the sorceress' control and impales her own a blade. The sorceress plans to use St. Denys to heal herself only to discover that she was tricked. Malagigi and the thief Brunello disguised themselves as St. Denys. The wizard hadn't given her the true spell. With the sorceress now dead, Brunello departs, and Malagigi and Valda plan to return the stolen reliquary.

Blackhawk #255: Evanier and Spiegle continue what I think is an underrated (and certainly uncollected!) run. Nazi scientist Dr Gehirn, having worked closely with Hugo Merson, has developed a low-frequency, mind-effecting radio signal which will induce psychological insecurities. The receiver is placed in a medallion, and German agents arranged for Blackhawk to receive this medallion and to wear it. For the next few days, the transmitted signals cause Blackhawk to experience nightmares and affect his concentration and leadership ability. He's pushed to the breaking point after he crashes in the desert and experiences physical deprivation as well as Gehirn's unrelenting attack. Luckily, the other Blackhawk's show up to rescue him and shoot down Gehirn's observation plane.

 

DC Comics Presents #54: Kupperberg and Newton work-in a sort of environmental message as Superman joins forces with Green Arrow to get to the bottom a mysterious, persistent smog over much of the country (including Metropolis and Star City). They are forced to battle against a scientist's energy-harnessing apparatus that causes tremendous air pollution as a by-product, which is more involved than you might think, as it's pulling from some extraterrestrial living energy thing. Interestingly (to me anyway) Kupperberg has Superman describing Star City as "to the north" of Metropolis which in context seems to imply it's further north on the East Coast.

Fury of Firestorm #9: Conway and Moore/Rodriquez pick up where last issue left off with Firestorm sinking in New York Bay and Stein trying to wake Ronnie up. He final does and the two head out to fight Typhoon and the storm. Ronnie gets frustrated with Stein criticizing his ill-considered attempts to help, and he releases all his nuclear energy at once, dissipating the storm, but causing them to split into their separate identities and they fall 4 feet to a building below.

Ronnie gets into another argument with Carmichael and the two arrange a time to fight. When they do, Carmichael takes advantage of a couple of distractions to knock Ronnie down, which has the effect of causing Doreen to rush to his aid. Ronnie has also been allowed back on the team and will play that night. Stein has a worse day as he loses his job and then falls off the wagon. Then, Typhoon starts up again. Firestorm is stymied a bit by Stein's intoxication, but Ronnie's renewed confidence perhaps gives Firestorm new reserves of power. Wherever it comes from, they apparently dissipate Typhoon ("he's gone" is all we are told, but it seems final.) 

The next issue blurb trumpets the return of Pat Broderick.

Justice League #211: Conway and Buckler continue the X-Element story, with the Justice League eager to accept help from the Treasurers who can give the element Earth now lacks. The Justice League begins to suspect the Treasurers' motives however when the alien's request they be given one particular human in exchange (who agrees to go willingly). They are right to be suspicious, because the aliens' cure causes one third of people and animals to be transformed into monsters. The Phantom Stranger appears to help out, even as Truthspeaker, a rebel Treasurer, reveals that his fellow aliens are actually the first wave of an invasion of Earth by the reptilian War-Kohn.

Adventure Comics #496: The only new story here is The Challengers of the Unknown by Rozakis and Toth/Giacola. Following up on the Professor's lead regarding a potential responsible party for the attempted murder of the group, they discovered that his cousin not only didn't try to kill them, but the uncle whose inheritance was the hypothetical motive isn't even head, having faked his death for tax purposes or something. Red Ryan gets confronted by a casino owner he owes.  The man is accused of plotting the murder, but he logically points out if Ryan were dead, he wouldn't get what he was owed. The Challengers-to-be are no closer to a solution. 

Scintilla

Scintilla are the common currency of civilized Gyndrion. They are naturally occurring shield-shaped crystals of various colors, with the most common known as opaline. The are typically harvested from areas with a history of volcanic activity, but their generation also relates in poorly understood ways to the flows or lines of fae, the energy which is harnessed to work magic.

Pre-scintilla crystals form within cysts occurring underground with have the appearance of geodes. The crystals within fracture into scintilla upon exposure to air. Scintilla are harvested from ruptured nodules, though the nodules themselves may be excavated and carefully ruptured by hand, a process called "cracking." Cracking tends to yield more scintilla, but over lower value.

Despite claims by montebanks, no sophont of Gnydrion has every been proven to be able to detect pre-scintilla nodules. So-called scintilla-sniffing nonnigs however are able to do so, though how they do this is mysterious.

In addition to their pleasing, crystalline appearance, scintilla are favored as currency because they are impossible to counterfeit, even through use of magic. In fact, scintilla are minor magical insulators, absorbing and dissipating fae energy directed specifically upon them, turning black and cracking in the process.

The Island and the Censor

Pohjal or in older texts Cinis Pohjal is a large island of volcanic origin within the Lake of Vermilion Mists. It is a desolate place of ash and pumice, dotted with hot springs and smoking holes, and attracting an inordinate number of noisome gas flies. In summary, there is little to recommend it, except that is also a place where scintilla may be gathered without diving and the attendant risk of angry urulu.

Scintilla cysts burst in the warmth of the hotsprings, and sifting the loose sand from their bottoms can yield imperfect--but perfectly spendable--scintilla of opaline and citrine colors with the rare sanguine. By some oversight of Panarchic edict, the ownership of scintilla gathered naturally above the lake's surface is an open question, allowing a legal opportunity for others to lay a claim so long as they can avoid disputation with the Eminent Compulsor or his agents. 

Besides the inconvenience of reaching the island and retrieving the scintilla there is another factor discouraging their acquisition. The island is the home of a baleful Visitant known as the Censor. This being is said to appear as a slender automaton with feminine form and four arms, two of which have dexterous hands and two large, scalpel-blades. The Censor lies dormant much of the time, but when she awakens, she seeks sophonts to improve upon in the direction of her moral sensibilities.  There are cases of individuals emerging her editing free of their previous vices and deficits of character to go on to lives of distinction, but they are rare.