[Playtest Campaign] Friday, November 6th-

Let me back-track a bit:

When Delver passed through the screen, Tybalt executed a Jaunt, but was suspended in a 'buffer' of a nebulous milky-white light where he had the conversation with the voice.

I took Delver's player outside and explained that dying now would satisfy the bargain presented to Tybalt, that it would avert a danger that if he were present would be dire enough to cut the Threads of the rest of the party, and that the found non-magical sword (not detailed in the previous post) would house his entity until the blade were used to slay an, at least, human-sized creature from which he would reconstitute his body. This process was necessary for his eventual manifestation of his Avatar, an Aelbaan species meta-power.
--He agreed.

I was greeted by Tybalt's player who then whispered that he was beginning to study Delver's character for 3 Rounds, as per 'waylay.'

Delver consumed his entire Dynamic Pool to telepathically call out to his compatriots to kill him for the above stated reason, and most of them obliged him.
--Their purses were heavier by d100 Platinum (ultra-rare).

The rest of the group then watched as Ashta took control of the craft.

They took the craft downstream as a whirlpool began to form (they chose not to investigate the source), and after a day of travelling, ran afoul of a giant aquatic variety of a Grell-like thing from which they fled down another opening and entered another section of the craft, clearly dedicated to dark practises. This area sloped upward and after they discovered how to operate the crackling 'electro-riser,' they eventually left it behind in the narrowing corridor carven with figures and reliefs too darkly mesmerising to detail here.
--Eventually, they blasted through the doors of a temple and came to rest.

Alighting, they entered the temple replete with additional figures, pillars, implements, and a low and high altar. A swarm of two-dimensional, light-absorbing, flying things flew out from among the toppled pillars and buckled ceiling and floors, but the damage was only spooky to one character. Ashta gave a polite order to Mela to begin the mummification process upon Delver's cadaver, which eventually would yield 1 cup of dust from 1 gallon of slurried sediment. Shadow creatures, illusions, and/or Dryvv speak with them and then Lord Shadow deigns to manifest, asking for a sacrifice.
--Tybalt, the Shadow-blooded (also exploring shadow-mysteries), was attentive and they finally settled upon Delver's mummified body (minus the stuffing which constituted the 'dust' reduction), which pleased the Elemental Lord. Tybalt's reward was a potion that would allow for limited planar travel, so long as the start and finish were in shadow, and that the elemental plane of Shadow were the conduit. He also learnt additional shadowy stuff.

With that over, the group left in the vehicle and encountered a stretch of lava tube that was encrusted with fungi that cast beautiful light in the Dark- and Ultravisual spectra, as well as a lesser show in visible light. Samples were taken and critters caught for specimen. They pressed on and saw daylight and a storm over the open seas beyond the island from which they emerged --clearly a different island from the one they had entered the underworld.
--They performed an initial survey of the coast, using the Aelbaan vessel's sensors and recording suite. They noted ancient dwellings in the sheer cliff face overgrown with vines and runners. three-quarters the way 'round the island (larger than the previous -- and believed to be the pod-island) they could see signs of great upset in the jungles and forest as trees were tossed-about while some great battle of beasts was waged out of sight.

We held it there.

[RPG] A Work in Progress-

Copyright (c) 2009 Kyrinn S. Eis

Mastery-

24+ : Alumeth - 'Infallible Perfection' - The very best possible outcome, no matter the odds against - Miraculous

23-22 : Eiryqos - 'Harmonious Emanations' - Sublime quality - A strike that knocks-sense into the victim - Virtuous

21-19 : Ienen - 'Cyclonic Pillars' - Awesome power, well restrained - Double Maximum Effect - Nullifying

18-16 : Oluniin - 'Incorporeality' - Move and Attack as a ghost - Lesser values pose no threat - Escape and Evasion

15-11 : Qelym - 'I, the Hermit' - Deep thought, examination, and investigation - Solving riddles/puzzles - Practise

10-08 : Uruden - 'Mountains of Contemplation' - Perfecting the art of observation - Present and Aware - Selfless

07-05 : Werenyn - 'Infinitesimal Substrate' - Stable for now - Temporal Success - True aim but windy day - Sandcastles

04-03 : Zaey - 'Little One of Great Potential' - Rough going, with setbacks and blood, but finally successful - Raw

02- : Y' - 'Cessation' - No influence - Enough knowledge to know one knows nothing - Base d24 roll

The preliminary work on a Descriptor-based task resolution system on d24 (or 2d12) for Technical Skills (Track, Scale, Repair, etc.).
--I'm one of those folks who actually admire the aim of the ACT chart mechanism of 3rd Ed. Gamma World, and have been tinkering with a colour-chart of my own which potentially may tie-in with this stuff.
---It looks spiffy in any case. ;)

Question: OSR Artists most liked for their critter art?-

** clarified **

Hi,

I am wondering if there are fan faves among the current OS Renaissance artists (ATOM, Mullen, Zeiser, etc.) specifically as regards their depictions of critters and monsters?

Please leave your comments as votes, and if possible, please include references to specific examples in extant artwork.

Thank you very much. :D

Belated Birthday Wishes to...-

M. A. R. 'Phil' Barker -- Creator of Tekumel and the Empire of the Petal Throne
--Long may he be with us in health.

Report via Jeff Berry

[Milieu][RPG] The Quantum Nature of Reality-

Copyright (c) 2009 Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights Reserved

The Grand Tapestry refers not only to the entire Urutsk Cycle, but to the Metacosmos in which Urutsk is but one of an infinite number of Cosmoi. It is within this Metacosmos that all of the 'alternate' realities and non-'related' settings I have ever worked on/gamed reside.

The result, within game-terms, is that certain High-Order events/spells/artefacts/etc. cause the individuals within the effect to 'shift' into Threads which are more accepting of the transformed natures of perceptible reality than those of the Thread from whence the individual observers hailed just prior to the effect.
--These shifts may be so subtle that the observers will never discern a difference, as the changes take place on a scale far beyond the perceptual pale, whether vast and distant cosmic differences (the number of radio stellar objects, for instance), or sub-atomic (the local number of affine/exitonic particles varies, creating a different density of time-space, altering the trajectory of wandering debris by a picometre to crash into a planet ten millennia later).

By extension, when an alter reality or a wish spell is cast, what is the actual effect? In The Grand Tapestry, and necessarily 'in' Urutsk, the observer(s) are shifted to a thread in which those conditions exist. This is also the case with powerful effects of artefacts, probability travel, and the like. One could argue that resurrection and its related spells do the same.

This means that gamers never need fear that their Urutsk: World of Mystery games drift too far from canon as to make the setting superfluous, and likewise, that the Old School tradition of affine characters blipping back and forth between campaigns never need be a 'bad thing', only one more factor for the vigilant Referee to consider before allowing the exchange to take place in their game.
--This factor has arisen in the Playtest Campaign, as I have posted previously as regards Tybalt and Mela and their 'dopples' in the prior 'unrelated' Pathfinder game.

But, this doesn't minimise a character's life and death, as, in a sense, the Player(s) and Referee are the observers in this equation. Even the asymmetrical distribution of one character's career between campaigns and pick-up games add a depth of richness that is rarely seen in fiction.
--The meaning is in the details; in the playing-out of the events, and the reaction of the character and its fellows' reactions to the character's actions.

Perhaps a bit like our reality?

[Playtest Campaign] Friday, 30th, October-

Still in the vast subterranean chamber abutting a black river => They went to investigate the submarine => Entered a maze-like sprawl of Disneyworld-esque 'cute buildings' => Battled a Water-Weird sort of thing that 'Fumbled' and decided that the party wasn't worth that sort of abuse => Found magic items => Met deformed folk interested in their doings => Pressed on and found a 'pit' that looked like something had simply scooped-out a section of the vast faux-village, but was still radiant blues in the Dark- and Ultravisual spectra => Skirted the pit => Ran afoul of more mutant Dryvv-like creatures, but scared them off with bright lights => Found a vast highway trailing off into the water due to the displacement shearing => Beset by more mutants who warned them of the deadly beast (sub) and its poison breath => Story recounted of the sub's core being ejected and causing the pit => The vessel's AI contacted and the 1325 year decontamination-process begun => The escape pod least affected, and jettisoned to roll onto the shore => Delver understands this to be Aelbaan technology and enteres the craft, passing through an energy screen => The others see Delver transform in a flash of light as he passes through the screen: He grew 7" and put-on 35 or so pounds (he now stands 7'2") => Tybalt, also talking to someone he thinks is the AI, is urged to kill Delver, and in return, the party would be rewarded by the agency from which the voice said Delver had gone rogue. Cliffhang...

[Playtest Campaign] Last Friday (23rd)-

While maintaining some modicum of tact, I shall not dwell on my calendar age, but will say that yesterday I had one of the less interesting birthdays.
--Good food, a friend slogging with me through long minis combat playtest for another friend's soon to be released system, and my mom making sure to make it feel like a birthday.
---Still feel like the wind has been knocked out of my sails, since Pop's death. Whew.

I know most folks don't like long game reports, so here's last session's overview:

* Mela Mela's tinkering with the two-headed dog saliva's property to regenerate the dogs' wounds, and the properties of Tybalt's pod-faery-daughters'-pods leads to a breakthrough of 'universal' regeneration, which she is developing into an unguent.
--This then leads to an expedition to the island from whence the pods were harvested, except that the island is renowned for phasing in and out of the Mundane Realm, and no one knows exactly where it is, only that it is between four other islands, each rather distant from each other, and in an even shallower region of the Middle Sea (also known as the Storm Plain). This trek requires yet another shallower-draught ship, and takes a few weeks and about 10k count invested in its success.

* The nearest of the islands in the triangulating quad is inhabited by a neolithic people whose creation myth is one of emerging from the ground about two thousand years ago (early in the Mad Spring, after the Black Winter, or The Scourging, etc.), and speak of monsters from the night sky who descended and wrought terror and hardship upon them for centuries. At that, Ashta, the descendant of the Superstructure Technician, sees that the flat smear of an island is dotted with remnants of some metalloid material, now long corroded and turned to a sort of granular foam -- implements and a mental reconstruction of the airstrip is verified by Tybalt (Engineering descendant) and Delver (the increasingly more-Aelbaan WI Vrun).

* Ahni, a polished-obsidian shadow-faery (about 8" tall at the time), steals Delver's distilled liquid 'mummy-spice' (the remains of his more-Aelbaan Qhattanian ancestors), and Jaunted away with it down to the floor of the crevasse. When next she was spotted, 'fully grown' to adult human height, she Jaunted away with Mela and brought her to a wall in the cavern where a very regular sound and the sensation of a draught could be felt. The other party members meet up with them and then puzzle-through the alien tech-interface.

* A liche contacted Delver through the interface, and they ran afoul of each others arrogance, and a new enemy was made.

* The wall proved to be a door, and provided entrance to a vast subterranean city --the 'computer' interface still active. It is puzzled together that the site represents a non-contiguous starship whose parts were phased into any open space that could house the individual spaces of the ship. This means that the very large craft (smaller than the Warden, for instance, but not by much), is scattered 'intact' in chunks, throughout about a one-thousand XsM radius, in a sort of elongated spade pattern, due to the steep angle and speed of the intentional dispersion -- a function of the vessel's Shadowdrive.
--Megadungeon enough for y'all?

* A female alchemist of a slate-grey skinned species, the Dryvv Aelbaan, helped the PCs for the usual payment in literal blood. The encounter also cemented the PCs in this game to events 'next door' in my old Pathfinder Beta game, which flipped my SO's lid for a bit. :)

* A battle with the undead minions of the liche was interesting, but went primarily in the PCs' favour, especially with the undead constabulary of the 'city' operating in the protection of Delver, the 'Diplomat' as the Interface refers to him.

* A submarine vehicle is the prize, but the party falls back to the entrance with plans to bring the island under their control through Delver's shipping company.