Carrion Crawlers.... WEAPONISED!!!

Carrion Crawlers. Fuck you, eight paralysis attacks per round... but what an awesome murdertool it'd be if you could weaponise them.

So I have. Research: "Ecology of the Carrion Crawler" in Dragon Mag #267.

Here's what you got:

1. You need elves. The jury's out as to which kind of elves, but certain D&D editions are vague enough about their immunity to paralysis. You need Vague Elves.  Elves that are vague enough to go along with your plan without caring really what you're up to. In fact the plan is wack enough that they might wake up from their immortal stupor and feign interest. What ever it takes to get their cooperation.

UPDATE: Actually it looks like the elves aren't that necessary cause no one can find any specific deets, beyond that their immunity only applies to ghouls. What you need then is a Vague DM, and just say it's in one of the editions he doesn't have. "Elves are immune to paralysis."... and just don't mention the "attacks from ghouls" bit. Totally Legit. Trust Me.

2. If you can't get elves, or your DM is a lert, you need slaves/hirelings/tribe of oppressed goblins sewn into envirosuits. Full body, head to toe no holes breather units, basically so they don't get stung by the tentacles and launch an involuntary stopwork meeting. Or, if you have crap manufacturing facilities on hand but lots of slaves, weaponise the slaves with mancatchers. Or in this case, crawler catchers. At the very least, give them really big gloves and pitchforks.

3. Once you've got your team of wranglers sorted (for later editions make sure they've maxxed out their animal handling skills (and their craft bodysuit skills for double usefulness), you need carrion crawlers. At least two, and of each sex. Yeah, there's boy crawlers and girl crawlers. Dragon Mag told me so:

TOO MUCH DETAIL.

The important bit is that you need both. Fortunately for Man Rider there's carrion crawlers by the thousands in the Cobalt Reach being worshipped by the goblin tribes, so the following numbers are waaaay conservative, but for argument's sake let's stick with two adult crawlers getting jiggy with it, and that once they've done their long distance loving you'll end up with roughly 100 eggs.

4. To get these eggs to larval form you need cadavers. THIS IS D&D. If you can't find cadavers GO MAKE SOME. And if you can't do that you're doing something very wrong. Like being Lawful Good.

5. Here's a totally arbitrary attrition rate over the first year: 50%. You'll probably need to replace those hirelings, so bank on that in your original budget.

6. Throw that rate on the crawlers, and after a year you should have 25 girl crawlers and 25 boy crawlers. Breed them; you'll get 2500 crawler grubs. A year later, same attrition, you'll get 625 breeding pairs. Breed them; you'll get 62500 crawler grubs. By the fourth year you're looking at 1,562,500 give or take. That should be enough to paralyse the Earth. Certainly enough for The Plan.

7. Setting some aside for continued breeding, you've still got half a million grubs. Of that group, set aside 100,000, take the remainder, then find a city full of alchemists:

(that last para looks intriguing, I'll have to look it up later)

Ballparking 1 crawler=1 unit of potion, order:

• 100,000 units of Potions of Paralysis Protection

• 200,000 units of Paralysis Poison

• 100,000 units of Contact Paralysis

8. Find an army of 20,000 able bodied fighty types.

9. Equip them: each gets 5 Potions of Paralysis Protection, 5 Contact Paralysis. They'll get more stuff in a sec.

10. Aside from your army of 20000 Crawlerites, you'll need ninjas. Strong ninjas. Say a Potion is what, half a litre, you'll have this much Paralysis Poison:

11. Apply paralysis ninjas to enemy water source. 

12. Let's say that doesn't work and the ninjas get eaten and you have to go to waaaaaaagh!!!!! You've got your army of 20000 soliders sitting idle waiting for the ninjas to get back. Keep them busy making these, 3 each:

Cage-On-A-Stick

The cages need to be about one to one and a half feet long, with a lockable fliptop grill on the end. The bladey bits are for sticking into people.

13. Having built 60000 of these, insert these:

Grub-On-A-Stick

14. Remember to shut the lids. Remember to have your troops drink one of their Paralystop Potions before hand.

15. Now you got two options; you can make 

Paralysis Clubs

(the Man Rider Weapon of Choice™):

or these:

Paralyspears

(have a new pole-arm, Gary)

The smart money is on making both kinds of weapons and giving both types to each soldier. And short swords. They now have Reach Weapons, that if they hit forces the target to make eight saves vs paralysis. If the enemy somehow manages to break through a paralyspear formation and gets hand to hand, they then have to make another eight saves vs paralysis every time they get hit by a paralysis club. 

As for that 100,000 crawler grubs you set aside way back in Step 7? Just add catapults. Even if 90% get wiped out on impact, you've still got 10,000 grubs crawling round behind the enemy's walls. That'll keep 'em busy.

CARRION CRAWLER: WEAPONISED.

(no idea how much it'd cost though).

Man Rider: A Love Story

3d6 in order: Str:12 Dex:4 Con:8 Int:6 Wis:9 Cha:7

1st Level Goblin, reskinned DCC Halfling.

Occasionally updated with new adventures.

2013:

Session One: Cobalt Reach: Big Jim Hammercock, 1st Level Dandy, is torn in two. Roll up new character. Worst attributes in the history of D&D. Total ability modifers: -8. Can only be a legless goblin. Legless goblin joins party mid game. Quest from weirdo Snake Men Cult: defeat the Army of the Limbless Harlot. Rides into Goblin Town on the shoulders of a man, declares "I am Man Rider!" and gains a horde of pathetic goblin rabble he commands into battle. Jokes about becoming a paladin so he can Summon Man Mount.

Session Two: Cobalt Reach: Battle. Big one. Enemy: Army of the Limbless Harlot. Goblin army is destroyed. Decides best thing to do in middle of battle is loot. Grabs spear, loots from the shoulders of nameless man mount. First item found: Cursed Shield of Missile Attraction. Shield works remarkably well. Man Rider shot down. Dying.

Session Three: Cobalt Reach: Not dying, stabilized but not really awake for 90% of session exploring the citadel of the Limbless Harlot. Wakes up once to snatch some carrion crawler grubs and put them in sack as they may come in handy later; gets knocked out again. Wakes up again just in time for battle with Limbless Harlot. Thrown across room wielding paired carrion crawler grubs. Hits Harlot in face. Harlot paralysed. Job well done. Passes out.

Session Four: (missed a few sessions where ramifications of killing the Harlot are encountered. good decision. Now, first Flailsnails adventure) Joins cadre of powerful warriors summoned across space and time: feels somewhat out of place. Quest is kill the crystal meth dragon. Much planning rendered useless when Man Rider is swallowed whole. Lucky roll, survives, drinks Polymorph Into House Potion, and turns into a three room bungalow inside dragon's neck. Gets renovated. When he turns back, has a new red door in chest. Also, cloned. Clone has legs. Man Rider hates clone.

Session Five: Back to Cobalt Reach: rejoins party, storming another citadel to stop eeeevil elves doing eeeevil things. Fail completely. Horrifying god of chaos incarnate accidently released after honky tonk piano player killed. You can stop the music. God rises from prison. Casts Fear. Man Rider (wisely) afraid. Runs away. Loots body of fallen comrade. Comes back to help party, fights solo rearguard action against god while rest of party escapes. God proves resistant to carrion crawler paralysis. Man Rider, resourceful, tries to cut god's feet off. God amused. Spares Man Rider who cuts a deal. Man Rider is turned into a Paladin of Akayle Ozph. Looking forward to using Summon Man Mount. Also, convinces God to let him ride on his shoulders. Henceforth: God Rider.

Session Six: (another Flailsnails adventure) God Rider joins cadre of powerful warriors summoned across space and time: stop the floating citadel full of monsters from crushing city. God Rider does nothing all adventure. Loots trophy room full of monster parts. Eats a giant brain. Too full to act, watches as aspiring Lawful Good paladin-wannabe takes a gem from unusual machine. Absence of gem from machine causes floating citadel to stop floating. Citadel crashes. On city. Aspiring Lawful Good paladin-wannabe singlehandedly kills two and half thousand souls. Gains lots of XP. God Rider and company flee the ruins. Gets paladin real drunk. Paladin burns down the Blue Rabbit, most famous bar in the Flailsnails multiverse, and gets married. Good times.

Session Seven: Cobalt Reach: Man Rider spends first weeks as avatar of Akayle Ozph wisely: sleeps in Manning's backpack. Wakes up to find covert mission to rescue a goblin child stolen by gnolls. Man Rider infiltrates gnoll fort. Mission goes horribly wrong. Discovered. Chaos ensues, but Man Rider in his element. Manages to grab child, give it Potion of Cloning, and leave the copy behind before finding tunnel open up beneath him. Slides down escape shaft. Saves the baby. Saves the world. Man Rider considered great hero by local goblin leader. Introduces leader to cult of Akayle. A good day.

Session Eight: Cobalt Reach: Man Rider wakes up mid-trajectory. Has been hurled from Manning's backpack into room full of enemies. Not a great start to the day. Flails about ineffectually, but able to distract the enemy enough that fellow adventurers are able to flee from the demilich that Manning accidentally creates. Man Rider is trapped. Hides in fort. Chums up with goblin slaves. Escapes several days later. Pleased to be alive.

Session Nine: Cobalt Reach: Man Rider running late. Big battle: siege of the gnoll fort. Shield of Missile Attraction proves awkward around ballistas and catapults. Man Rider commands goblin detachment in "flanking manoeuvre" feint. Attempts to lure foes behind walls to far side while main force does what it's meant to do. Man Rider and the Nameless Mount get bored. Order goblin detachment to circumnavigate the fort while the two infiltrate the fort for planned mayhem. Plan fails miserably. Man Rider and Co pinned down, while main force breaks wall on far side. Yay! Bad guys run away to fight real enemies. Man Rider survives. Is rewarded with a scroll of mutation from General Gustav. Tempted to cast on Captain Manning. Casts on self instead. Gains six tentacles. Three heads. Rearranged face. Massive torso. Beak. terrible smell. Man Rider pleased.

Session Ten: Cobalt Reach: has been several months since hibernation of contemplation; emerges to find Man Rider especially useless in exploration of Echo Palace. Not very effective in combat against anything, including the jackal men disguised as dryads. Ignored by god. Causes Mutation on self: gets a turtle head. Jackalmen sorcerers dissolve Shield of Missile Attraction with Acid attack. Best news all week. Survives battle. Makes up for lacklustre fight by defiling some old guy's tomb. Learned that Heward's Mystical Organ is somewhere in tower. Everyone runs away. Man Rider sad. Organs made him the freak he is today. Promises to return.


Session Eleven: (Flailsnails) Joins cadre of powerful warriors summoned across space and time: wakes up in Hexenbracken. Vision from Akayle Ozph: seek out the mutating Insect skull. Heads south in vague direction if skull. Meets a knot of pennangallan heads, innards all tied up; Seyl, Knight of Chaos (and excellent mount) applies the Gordian School of knot appreciation. Rewarded by freed pennangallans with ritual to summon demons. Press on, meet red fire goblins. High fives all round. Press on, meets halfling caravan lost in the wild. Cheeky halfling calls Man Rider retarded. Man Rider mutates halfling, emancipating and emaciating him. Seyl suggests punishment not finished, advises Man Rider of mutagenic potion in backpack. Man Rider fails to resist sweet sweet mutation juice, drinks potion instead. Gets really fucked up: infested with mutation-inducing parasites that cause transformation for every round in combat. No need to seek out Insect skull now. Instead, now has ADD, Sense Good, Touch of Confusion, Enhanced Touch, Medium, and can Transform Shape for a few hours. Also, parasites will probably kill him in two months when they emerge. Good news: Man Rider is going to be a dad! Lastly, Summoned Mount in combat and rode Brad Pitt in Troy getup facewards. Felt great.

Some time between 2015-16: Man Rider gave birth to a bunch of mutagenic parasites, and survived. During these lost years he also snuck in an unrecorded adventure or two.

2017

Session Thirteen (Vaults of Vyzor): Joins cadre of powerful warriors summoned across space and time. Definitely felt out of place. Dusty too. Have been frozen in carbonite for last two years. No princess to kiss when woke up. Sad, but woke. Have joined party exploring Vaults of Vyzor: Slovenia Troll plus Dog of Awesomeness +1, Barnie the well oiled muscletron plus One Eyed Otto, and one armed Yareh. She's cute. See much potential in her, especially after her one handed crossbow loading maneuvre. Convinced Muscletron to be mounted into battle. Still have oily thighs. Explored Vyzor. Found: Wolves, Hungry Like the. Wanted payment in meat. Think Slovenia made deal to feed them Man Rider. Think they would not like it. Found rope pulley thing. Pulled it. Summoned orcs. Killed orcs. Yareh hot. Corridors. Lots and lots of. Killed ghouls. Otto hurt. Otto healed. Otto blessed by Akayle Ozph. Now Otto of Prehensile Eye. Dog of Awesomeness finds secret door in back of shower. Forced to have shower. Door leads to stairs. Stairs lead to Orc lair ruled by Orc bard. Orc ambush. Have buzz saw arrows. Shear Man Rider's buttock clean off. Had worse. Win fight, healed, butt grows back in right place. More orcs. Slovenia perpetrates ruse that convinces orcs to worship Man Rider. Man Rider happy. Slovenia and rest of party kill Orc worshippers. Man Rider sad. Mandolin smashed. Yareh accepts the blessings of Akayle Ozph. Cuts arm off big Orc, wants attached to arm stump. Try to make it happen. It happens, but Akayle gives her Crows Legs as well. So hot right now. Took unrequited love and share of Orc treasure to bar. Got drunk. Lost all money, got new quest from God. Find the Unimaginable Star of Yragnnngrelfffzzzikkrraxxllarrrgghh. Oh great. All Man Rider wants is true love. Too much to ask for? Flowers for Yareh. Must remember.

Session Fourteen (GENCON EDITION): Gets legs. Bed legs. Not in useful positions. 

2018

Session Fifteen (Return to the Vaults of Vyzor): Deets coming. 

Session Sixteen (Return to the Vaults of Vyzor II): Deets coming.

HUSK: History of a Hollow World Part III

There's a whole bunch of references here to races and whatnot. I'm sure not all of it will make sense (I mean it does to me, but I wrote the thing) but check out the previous entries on the people of Husk over here (Part I) and here (Part II).

And for the previous posts on the History, Part I is here and Part II is here.

c 3,600 YEARS AGO

BEGINNING OF THE THOUSAND YEAR WAR
The Battle of Vlata Yhom left both Djakarshi and Calishe in a precarious political position. Their armies had been severely depleted, and their economies drained to fuel their wars. It was only a matter of time before the other Narghwan Queens would strike – and strike they did. There is little accurate information that emerges from this time; suffice to say the Orb was consumed by a terrible conflict that covered every continent and spanned over one thousand years. And despite their best efforts to slay one another, not one of the Narghwan Queens was ever overcome. Cities were levelled, billions sacrificed in the name of conquest and revenge, but no Queen emerged from that vast conflict victorious. Wars are oft praised for the technological advances they create, but the Thousand Year only brought about advances in horror. The greatest atrocity committed took place in the first years of the War, as the Mogramids were transformed into a weapon of terrible power.

WRACK WEAPONS DEVELOPED
As the sponsor of the development of the Mogramids, Queen Calishe was privy to the many failed experiments that were conducted prior to their successful use. Surrounded by jealous Queens and defended by a pathetic shadow of her former army, she was left with no recourse but to defend herself with a dreadful show of force. What she alone knew was that the Mogramids did not need to be targeted on another Mogramid in order to function – by simply aiming at any location on the Orb, the Mogramid could initiate its teleportation sequence and strike the location with a searing blast of lightning. The Wrack, as this new weapon was called, was first used to great effect against Djakarshi, turning huge swathes of verdant jungle and plains into scorched desert. Not surprisingly the other Narghwan Queens avoided conflict with Calishe from then on, allowing her to slowly rebuild after her prior disaster at Vlata Yhom. The War raged on in other lands, and more conventional methods of warfare were used, but it was only a matter of time before Calishe started selling use of the Wrack to the other Queens. It was Queen Harioc who managed to infiltrate Calishe’s palace and discover the secret art of Wrack; she immediately sold this information to the other Narghwan Queens and levelled the playing field considerably.

Use of the Wrack increased dramatically, with each of the Queens attacking their closest rivals. The skies were filled with huge arcs of deadly lightning, erupting from the Mogramids and crashing down on whatever city was destined for ruin. Calishe was particularly ravaged, the victims of her earlier Wrack attacks eager for revenge. Devastation swept across the Orb, and it is quite probable that in venting their hatred for one another the Nargwhans were going to destroy all life on the Orb. Fortunately there was another power of equal strength that confronted the Narghwans, and convinced them to end their use of Wrack.

c 3,400 YEARS AGO

THE BHULKULBS NEGOTIATE CONTROL OF THE MOGRAMIDS
As the main suppliers of food for the Narghwans, the cnidarian Bhulkulbs had considerable influence over the Viperium, and in the worst days of the Wrack they realised that very soon there would be nothing left for anyone to fight over if use of the Wrack did not cease. Envoys were sent to each of the Narghwan Queens with a simple massage – stop using the Mogramids as weapons of war, or the Narghwans would find their food supplies cut off. The message was received well by most of the Queens, but none of them felt they could trust the other Queens to agree to such an accord. Then the Bhulkulbs made an offer – give the Bhulkulbs control of the remaining Mogramids so they could rebuild the damaged trade networks and ensure the Nargwhans’ food supply was well maintained. The Bhulkulbs would then maintain their neutrality til the War was concluded. As for using the Mogramids for the Wrack, the Bhulkulbs proposed to disable the Mogramid’s ability to fire unless targeted at another Mogramid. While many of the Mogramids had been destroyed in the war, it was by more mundane means, for the Mogramids were impervious to the Wrack. It took many years of negotiation, but finally control of the Mogramids was handed over to the Bhulkulbs for safekeeping. While the many atrocities committed by the Bhulkulbs should never be forgotten, nor should this act of foresight and preservation. Even though it was motivated by their own plans for dominance, without it, life on the Orb may well have ceased to be.

c 3,400-3,000 YEARS AGO

THE VIPER WARS WORSEN WITH THE CREATION OF THE BREED
There was a brief lull in the fighting after the Bhulkulb Accord, but all too soon it flared up again. The Accord laid down the rules of engagement, which the Bhulkulbs monitored and controlled through the restriction of food supplies. It is clear that the true rulers of the Viperium had become the Bhulkulbs, but the Narghwans, blinded by their determination to destroy one another, paid no heed to the subtle takeover of their power. The next eight hundred years was marked by long periods of warfare, each more brutal and exhausting than the last. There is little to be said of this time, save that in their relentless pursuit of victory the Nargwhans unleashed monstrosity after monstrosity onto the field of battle. Confined as they were to the terms of the Accord, the Narghwan Queens did their best to find new agents of war. An oversight within the Accord did not include the banning of biological warfare, and this led to the creation of terrible creatures designed solely to kill. Known only as the Breed, these hideous creatures where creations of flesh and bone and came in all manner of shape and size and armament. The Breed claimed countless lives during the remainder of the war and have continued to plague the Orb to this day. They were very difficult to maintain any control over, and they turned on their creators as often as they devoured their enemies. At first the Breed were similar is stature to the other sentients, but in their Quest to out do one another the Nargwhan Queens created beasts of immense size, juggernauts of destruction. Out of this time came the legendary Sevenbred, a septet of gargantuan horrors unleashed by the Narghwan Queen Vinvasleen. They quickly broke free of their master’s control, and raged across the Orb bringing indiscriminate death to all they encountered. Six of them still roam the Orb even today. They are known as the Carcassanc, the Vulg, the Kulloathe, the Lacerach, the Mangalore, the Sevseren, and the Rend. Each towered over a mile high and lived only to devour. No army or mountain range or sea could stop their passage, and only when they had eaten their fill would the cease their slaughter. They would then burrow deep into the Orb or sink beneath the waves, and surface again to eat til they are satiated.

c 3,200 YEARS AGO

COLONISATION OF THE LITTLE WORLDS
Perhaps the only deed worthy of praise during the Thousand Year War was the colonisation of the outer planets that orbit within the Orb. The Narghwans had exhausted the resources available to them on the surface of the Orb, and were forced to turn their greed to the planets above them. The Nargwhan Queen Gharda was the first to attempt travel to the outermost world of Mephiyeh. While the other Narghwans waged war with each other, Gharda’s war turned to the skies as she attempted to make the journey in and armada of dirigibles. Her enemies were the Duskeyr, the Lightning Eaters who had lived in the clouds since fleeing the Viperium centuries before. It was a hard fought battle but the Duskeyrs, limited as they were to their lightning weapons, were overcome by the ingenuity of Gharda’s engineers. They developed insulated skinships and scattered metal filaments into the clouds to draw away the Duskeyr’s attacks, and eventually Gharda was triumphant.

When the vanguard of Gharda’s fleets finally landed on Mephiyeh they found a cool uninhabited planet rich in resources. It also gave Gharda the ability to launch attacks from the skies over any part of the Orb that Mephiyeh traversed. Such an advantage over the other Queens was destined to end soon enough, but for the time being Gharda’s power was in ascendance. From Mephiyeh she was able then to strike out towards the planets closer to the Heartsun. Without the Guruun’s assistance Mogramid construction was beyond the ability of the Viperium, and so Mogramids were never raised on the little worlds. Instead the other Queens had to resort to the creation of flying transports or the powers of Imajion, and some even gave the accursed Breed the ability to fly. The other Queens were quick to make their own aerial assaults and the war that was raged on the surface of the Orb was lifted up into the heavens. Thus began the Colonial War, and it was every bit as bitter and terrible as the wars that had come before it.

c 3,000-2,600 YEARS AGO

ATROCITIES AND STAGNATION
Wars can only be fought for so long before they consume a nation’s resources and the ability of it people to fight them. The fact that the Thousand Year War was fought for as long as it was is testament to the vast power which each of the Nargwhan Queens wielded, both in ability to manufacture weapons of war and in forcing its subjects to fight. Bound as they were to the whim of the Narghwans there was little they could do, but it was inevitable that Narghwan society would suffer terribly for it. Slowly but surely the decline of the Viperium became evident, as weapons more twisted and terrifying rolled out onto the field of battle, and more eccentric and insane devices were cut loose to fight in the Colonial War. Little remained of those first colonies established on the three outer worlds of Mephiyeh, Pheocudi and Volperqu, destroyed as they were by rival Narghwans or the Duskeyr who still resisted the invasions of the Ether. One by one the colonies were abandoned, and the Colonial Period came to an end. With the Orb nearly stripped of all its resources, the ability of the Narghwans to fight was slowly reduced. The war had clearly taken its toll on the minds of the Narghwan Queens, poisoned as they were but such prolonged hatred of each other. The Imperial edicts that emerged from the Royal Nests grew stranger and stranger, and the few weapons that were developed during this last phase of the Thousand Year War were truly staggering in their peculiarity. Yet there was one weapon still unleashed, one developed by an unnamed Queen centuries before as a last resort. Why she chose to use this weapon when she did is unclear, but it is theorised that she had grown weary of the War, and weary of life, and chose to end it for everyone – including herself. It was to lead to the end of the Thousand Year War, but was heralded by a most unexpected phenomenon.

SHARDFALL
No-one knew what caused the sudden increase in activity among the Shards that surrounded the Heartsun, but it was recorded in the last years of the Thousand Year War that great activity was occurring in the heavens. It appeared that the Shards had mimicked the life far below them, and had gone to war with each other. To this day astronomers know very little about the Shards, but it is clear that they possess some level of intellect. Whether they have powers of Imajion is yet to be seen, so they are not counted among the Myriad Peoples. Yet over two and a half thousand years ago, the opportunity arose to make contact with one of the Shards – for it fell out of the sky.

It is theorised that some action of the rumoured Shard War had dislodged one of the Shards from its orbit, and sent it plummeting towards the earth. Fortunately for life on the surface of the Orb, it splashed into the seas off the coast of Klulkhun in what was to become the Shardfall Ocean. It rapidly sank to the unknown deeps, and its passage was marked with a giant wave that drowned nearby coastlines, causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands at the time. It is probable that the death toll would be ten times higher had it landed on land. Sadly it sank before any Narghwan scientists were able to study it properly, but the Shard was estimated to be over fifty miles long. The phenomenon was seen as a terrible portent, and it was widely believed that even greater disasters were to follow. Such prophecies were fulfilled in less than a year.




(Part IV tomorrow!)

PORPHYRY: Face Off from start to finish.

Just a simple animation showing the progress from start to finish on that Porphyry piece.

PORPHYRY: Face Off

So Porphyry: The World of the Burn is a Tunnels & Trolls supplement — 

only fitting then to have an homage to one of the old covers...

HUSK: History of a Hollow World Part II

There's a whole bunch of references here to races and whatnot. I'm sure not all of it will make sense (I mean it does to me, but I wrote the thing) but check out the previous entries on the people of Husk over HERE (Part I) and HERE (Part II).

c.4,000 YEARS AGO

THE INVENTION OF MOGRAMID TELEPORTATION
The Guruun Mogramahukom is honoured with the invention of Mogramid teleportation, although it is far more likely that he was simply in charge of a vast conglomeration of scientists, Imajioneers, architects and belchitects that found a way to teleport objects and creatures between two Mogramid devices. Given the ramifications it was to have on Viperium society, it is little wonder that the Narghwans would honour his efforts with the naming of the devices after him. While it first may seem odd that a Guruun would work for the Viperium, it is believed that the independence of Pushpanoi was the promised reward for his efforts. Up til this time Mogramahukom’s homeland was held as a tributary to the Viperium, and was excessively taxed by the Narghwan overlords. Despite the immunity of the Guruun to the Narghwans’ ability to control the minds of others, there were alternate methods of coercing the Guruun to work on the multitude of construction projects undertaken by the Viperium. The development of the teleportation research was under the secret auspices of the Nargwhan Queen Calishe.

Exactly how the Mogramids worked is a secret that has been lost for millennia, but here is a brief overview. The passengers or cargo would enter the huge tetrahedron shaped construct that hovered above the squat docking ziggurat. The operators would select another Mogramid as the destination, then the Mogramid would begin to flip and spin at an increasingly rapid pace. This is no mean feat - the first Mogramids were over a mile long on their edges; two millennia of technological advances reduced them to about half this size. Once the Mogramid had achieved an incredibly fast rotation, the contents were transformed into a searing burst of energy that danced through the Aether like a bolt of lightning. The bolt struck the spinning target Mogramid, but it then rapidly slowed down coming at last to a standstill. The contents could then be unloaded, untouched and undamaged in any fashion. The first successful test had the unfortunate side effect of completely levelling the surrounding lands for a hundred miles, vaporising over one million inhabitants of a neighbouring city and turning the surrounding jungle to ash. This swathe of destruction was never overcome in all the many years of Mogramid advances, although the area of effect was reduced to one-third this radius in the last Mogramids that were made. The other unfortunate side effect was the annihilation of the entire development team including Mogramahukom. Over the next sixty years the Nargwhans were able to piece together the remains of the research and were eventually able to reproduce the same effect. Mogramid teleportation was now available for the Viperium to develop. Mogramid construction began on every continent of the Orb, with the technology sold by the Narghwan Queen Calishe for incredible sums. Calishe achieved the pinnacle of her power and influence, which should have lasted for many centuries as a result. However, Her failure to honour the negotiations laid down by Mogramahukom led to the costly war against the Guruun.

c 3,800 YEARS AGO

THE PUSHPANOI WAR
The Guruun continued to work on the Mogramid construction for many years after Mogramahukom perished, believing that Calishe would honour the agreement between her and Mogramahukom. They built the vast majority of the Mogramids during this fifty-year period, teams of ten thousand Guruun shaping the surrounding earth into the Mogramid designs. The structures sprang up all over the Orb, with at least one Mogramid on every continent, and usually many more. The Guruun were reluctant to build a Mogramid in the land of Pushpanoi, reasoning that once they were granted their independence they would have little desire to maintain relations with the Viperium. However, ambassadors from the Narghwan Queen convinced them that self-imposed exile was perhaps not the best option. The Viperium would still have need of Guruun stoneshaping abilities, and that perhaps there were things that the Viperium could offer them. Eventually the Guruun agreed to the construction of the Pushpanoi Mogramid, but not without a sense of foreboding.

At this time a new rivalry sprang up among the Narghwan Queens, envious of Calishe’s sudden wealth and fearful that the Mogramids could be used against them. As the Guruun toiled on, around them the armies of the Narghwan Queens were massing for a new war. Sadly the Guruun never were a perceptive race, particularly with the machinations and deceptions of the minds of others, and they did not see the trap that had been laid out for them.

With the completion of the Pushpanoi Mogramid the Queen Calishe wasted no time in using the device to send through one hundred thousand of her finest warriors to invade Pushpanoi. Huge arcs of lightning scarred their way through the Aether from her staging grounds in Barambay and speared the Shapelands’ Mogramid. Ten thousand troops would come through at a time, and once clear of the destructive radius that surrounded each Mogramid they would signal back to the Barambay Lighthouses that they had arrived. Then another ten thousand would appear, and another. Within five days Queen Calishe’s armies had established themselves in the heart of Pushpanoi.

The Guruun had never been an aggressive folk, and while they are exceedingly tough, their lack of military organisation meant they were rapidly overwhelmed by the Calishan Invasion. However, they had two things that would aid them in their two centuries of resistance – their power of stoneshaping, and the envy of the other Narghwan Queens. Hewrabadiesjin was the first Guruun to use his stoneshaping ability as a means of violence, and while he regretted it ever afterwards, he saw no other option but to fight back against the Calishan oppressors. He co-ordinated the first successful counterattacks against the invaders, and remained throughout the Pushpanoi Wars a key figure in the defence of the Shapelands against the Viperium. At first the Guruun attacks involved rasing shield walls of stone, and tearing open rents in the ground before the feet of their enemies that would hamper their progress, but the Guruun became skilled at hurling shards of stone and catapulting great menhirs straight out of the ground, to have them come crashing down in the midst of the enemy. Still the enemy came on, and within a month there were over one million Calishan invaders - many had sailed across the straits to Pushpanoi, and others had landed in massive dirigible airlifts from Barambay and Calishe.

THE RASING OF THE RAMPARTS
In order to keep the seaward invaders at bay, Hewrabadiesjin instructed his brethren to raise the great walls along Pushpanoi’s western coastline. An ongoing effort that lasted the length of the two hundred years of proper fighting, the sea walls eventually rose to over a mile in height, and with sheer sides quickly became impenetrable. This had little effect on the aerial invasion, save that the turbulent airs above this wall made flight more dangerous. It also did nothing to stop the invaders from using the Mogramid.

However, it was the Narghwans themselves who saved the Guruun in their darkest hour. Fearing that Calishe would gain control of the entire continent and increase her power even further, the other Queens began sending their own troops in through the Mogramid, under the pretence of allies. This was quickly seen through by Calishe, and soon there was open warfare between the combined alliance of the other Queens and Calishe’s own armies. Desperate to maintain her hold over Pushpanoi, Calishe then sent the vast remainder of her armies into Pushpanoi. Her determination worked for a time, for she was able to push back the new invaders. However, agents from the Narghwan Queen Djakarshi had been in contact with the Guruun resistance, and the two parties launched a co-ordinated attack against Calishe’s holdings. Djakarshi’s armies marched across the border into neighbouring Calishe and also invaded her homeland through the Mogramid, while at the same time the Guruun launched a new offensive against Calishe’s armies encamped in the Shapelands. Realising her homeland was under threat, Calishe immediately withdrew all of her forces from Pushpanoi, reckoning that she could always return through the Mogramid to finish what she had started.

THE BATTLE OF VLATA YHOM
Djakarshi had not counted on Calishe withdrawing her entire invasion force to fight against her, and a month later the two forces met at Vlata Yhom, in the largest battle ever to be fought on Orbian soil. Calishe, enraged by this act of treachery, threw her entire army into the fray, and Djakarshi, committed to the overthrow of Calishe, met her forces with equal animosity. The entire arsenal of weaponry ever known to the Narghwans was unleashed in that battle, and the vast quantities of Imajions used cause all manner of unforeseen side effects and disasters for both sides. Viethie Warmachines and Imajion Havocs clashed with grunt and soldier and slave. After a hundred days of fighting both sides were decimated, the surrounding lands were ruined forever, and no clear victor emerged. Of the ten million Djakarshan troops and seven million Calishan troops sent into battle, only half a million returned to each side. The dead remain untouched even to this day, preserved forever on the Warplains of Vlata Yhom.

DESTRUCTION OF THE PUSHPANOI MOGRAMID
Meanwhile the Guruun had not been idle. They were free at last of the presence of Calishe’s armies, and the other Narghwan Queens withheld their actions until the Battle of Vlata Yhom was decided. For the first time in the two centuries of the invasion the Pushpanoi Mogramid lay virtually undefended. The surviving Guruun descended upon the Mogramid, and in the space of one night of fury reduced the mile high stone construct to a pile of rubble. With the Ramparts now encircling most of Pushpanoi, the Guruun homeland was effectively impregnable by any land invasion. There was little they could do against aerial aggressors save knock them out of the skies with their catapults, but this was never tested, for the lands of Pushpanoi were never again assailed. The Pushpanoi War had ended, but what was to follow was far worse.


(Part III tomorrow!)

HUSK: History of a Hollow World Pt I

There's a whole bunch of references here to races and whatnot. I'm sure not all of it will make sense (I mean it does to me, but I wrote the thing) but check out the previous entries on the people of Husk over HERE (Part I) and HERE (Part II).

PRE-HISTORY
The true nature of the beginning of things will never be known. At this point the boundary between legend and myth is blurred, and it becomes a matter for theological debates and creation theories. This ignorance can be attributed to the Viperium’s policy of erasing and altering the evidence to give the illusion of their pre-eminence – while modern historians have long been aware of this activity, they are yet to uncover any sign of alternate histories. The Viperium, it seems, was very thorough. Evidence suggests that most of the known sentients existed prior to the formation of the Viperium. The Schwierling and the Guruun, with their exceptional lifespan and extraordinary oral traditions, state that there were a number of different civilizations in existence prior to the Viperium. They are yet to be proved either way.

c.7,000-5,000 YEARS AGO

DAWN OF THE VIPERIUM - THE VIPERIUM ERA

The coming of the Viperium was to have ramifications throughout all layers of Orb society, history, technology and culture. How they came to such Orb-spanning power in such a short time is not known, although most historians suspect their ability to mentally control the whims and actions of others was the key to their success. By manipulating enemy against enemy it is easy to see how they would have risen to absolute control. The official Viperium doctrine is that they were granted custodianship over all of the Orb by the gods that had spawned them, and with such a mandate they exercised their beliefs with impunity. Naturally any questioning of the above statement would have been heresy in their time – they truly believed (and encouraged others to believe) that they had descended from heaven, and were to live as gods in this lowly realm.

THE CHILDREN OF NARGHWA
During the reign of the Viperium almost all other sentient species were enslaved, their lives controlled and manipulated to serve the Viperium’s needs. The Viperium maintained the belief that all of the sentients were actually created by the Narghwans, and encouraged the others to worship them as their creators. Several peoples did escape enslavement, namely the Schwierlings, who were only discovered to exist long after the fall of the Viperium, but who’s memories stretch back to the times before the Rise of the Nargwhans; the Guruun, who minds could never be dominated; and the Bhulkulbs, who the Viperium seem to have regarded with some caution, considering them a power of equal magnitude. Naturally the hated Ehluri were never counted as one of the Viperium slaves, as they did not Emerge until recently. Perhaps it is this lack of a common oppressor that singles out the difference between the Ehluri and the Children of the Narghwa - most other races share an understanding that while they are very different, the ancient memory of enslavement means they would never force their power onto another. It is obvious that the Ehluri have no such qualms.

c.5,000 YEARS AGO

THE VIPERIUM ESTABLISHES CONTROL OF THE ORB
Once the Viperium had destroyed or controlled all other enemies they were free to grow in power and dominance. Led by the Six Narghwan Queens, Viperium society quickly spread across the Orb, assimilating local cultures and beliefs, enslaving all beneath them. The culture of the Viperium was a regimented caste system, a pyramid structure with the gargantuan Narghwan Queens the pinnacle of society. Beneath them were various castes of Narghwans, decreasing in size but gaining in number the further down the social ladder they were. Beneath the Narghwans were the servitor races, the Children of the Narghwa who complied with every whim of their masters. There was no supreme Narghwan Queen - instead they fought bitter battles between one another, either in open warfare or courtly intrigues. Occasionally one would assume a position of superiority over the others, but such was their jealousy and envy that the others would band together to overthrow the superior Queen. Such alliances were short-lived.

The names of the Narghwan Queens were Calishe, Djakarshi, Gharda, Harioc, Sinvashi and Vinvasleen. Each ruled the lands that still bare their name, as well as the surrounding territories. As the power of each Queen waxed and waned their dominions grew and shrivelled, but no Queen was ever ousted from her homeland, save Vinvasleen, whose palace was destroyed in the last days of the Empire by the Verilha Sunfall, which also claimed the life of Queen Gharda. The seat of Narghwan power was in the metropolis of Serpentia, the pinnacle of Narghwan culture. While it lay within the realms claimed by Djakarshi, it was an independent territory and remained so throughout most of the Viper Age. In Serpentia the Narghwan Queens would meet to discuss matters of state or to enjoy Serpentia’s luxuries, engage in duels and enforce control over the Viperium. At several times during the reign of the Viperium Serpentia was nearly destroyed by warfare between the Queens.

COMMUNICATIONS AND TRADE STRENGTHEN THE VIPERIUM
There were two factors that held this precarious Empire together - firstly, the development of rapid communications across the Viperium. Given the physical structure of the Orb, any point on the Orb’s surface is visible from nearly everywhere else within the Orb, as long as astronomical bodies do not interrupt the line of sight. The use of light signals to communicate to other parts of the Orb possibly pre-dates the Rise of the Viperium, however the Viperium put this communication to its most effective use. One of the first projects undertaken by the Viperium was the establishment of a vast network of colossal Lighthouses that would shine various signals at one another, thereby communicating messages across the Viperium. At first the process was simple but lengthy task of spelling out each letter in the transmission, but over time more complicated techniques evolved, combining the use of different coloured lights and arrays of beacons. The only drawback to using the Signal Lights was its restriction to night-time operation, and even then, if enough Suns were still in the Aether, communication became nigh impossible. Communication was also aided by the standardisation of language and mathematics. The great Goilnoi mathematician Galshasi, inspired by the prevalence of the number 6 in Nargwhan society and their caste structure, developed a base 6 mathematical system which he then applied to a number of sciences including astronomy, cosmology, geography and chronology; the Huen Quillingis, who was Galshasi’s symbiotic host and follower, went on to apply the base 6 structure to language and economics, standardising currency and trade and developing the Sjeshisk, the phoenetic written equivalent of the Sisarsul (also known as the Forked Tongue). The hope of Quillingis was that anyone from any realm within the Orb would be able to communicate with anyone else. With its adoption by the Viperium as the state language, Quillingis’ dream was realised.

The second factor that strengthened the Viperium was the need to feed the Narghwans and their vassals. All Narghwans feed off creativity, but while the lower Narghwan castes needed only to consume ideas and thoughts, leaving their victim docile and stupid for but a short time, the vast and insatiable hunger of the Narghwan Queens would drain the very creative soul of any they drank from. This had a number of consequences. The first was the establishment of a complex slave network that would ensure a steady supply of food for the Narghwans. This was overseen by the Bhulkulbs, who enjoyed enforcing this misery upon their stock. The partnership between the Bhulkulbs and the Narghwans grew, and they were accorded near equal status in the eyes of the Viperium. In time, as the Narghwans’ palates demanded a broader selection of tastes and their hunger demanded a greater number of victims, the Bhulkulbs’ slave network expanded to every continent on the Orb. The demand for greater numbers led to the establishment of breeding programs that ensured a ready supply of stock as needed, and the Children of the Narghwans grew great in number. Fashionable tastes led to the cultivation of unusual and exotic breeds within each species. The species known as the Huens in particular formed the staple diet of the Narghwans, for their creativity, rapid breeding, and easily manipulated biology stood them out from other species. This predilection for creating various subspecies of Huens accounts for their many and varied forms today. Often though the Bhulkulbs would instead devour the flesh of their victims, but not before tearing out their soul and feeding them to the burgeoning Viethie technology, where by severed souls were implanted into mechanical creations, giving them the ability to function where no living thing was able.

Not all of the Children of the Narghwans were destined to be fodder. Each species was cultivated to fulfil a particular niche within Narghwan society. Each species was moulded to suit their masters’ needs, and their needs were many. To aid in the flow of slave stock massive efforts were made to ease transport across the Orb. Incredible roadworks were made across the continents, but these then gave way to flying vessels that filed the Aether with their traffic. Then these too were made obsolete, for a unique method was developed that provided near instantaneous transport to anywhere in the Orb.

(Part II tomorrow!)

It's the End of the World as We Know It...

A question I've been asking round the traps of late:

what would happen if you were able to slow the turning of the earth, increasing the length of time it takes to turn by 10% each day, til eventually it was tidelocked with the sun? How long would it take, and what would be the effects on climate, water, world temperatures, plate tectonics, the Coriolis Effect, the moon, the earth's orbit around the sun, and on life?

how many days before it becomes tidelocked (my initial calc had it at <60 days, using compound interest formula I got <62 days).

how many total hours would it take to become tidelocked, from that first hour of that first 26.4 hour day, to the end of the almost year long last day? going on one year = 365.25 days x 24hrs = 8766hrs for the earth to turn and remain tidelocked with the sun.

and some answers:

TonyC:

It will take 62 "days". But since the length of the day gets longer every day, it will take roughly 10 years. Or to be exact, 88157,46812282817 hours.

I can tell you what will happen on the first and second day. Massive storms as the weather adjusts.

I can tell you what definitely will happen on the last day. All life will have died. All atmosphere on the night side is frozen. All atmosphere on the day side will have evaporated. There is no liquid anywhere unless we're talking about maybe puddles of molten lead from some leftover industrial stock. For that matter, since the atmosphere has either frozen off or boiled off, no air either. Temperature on the day side will be at least 123° C but probably higher. I'm basing this on the daytime temperature on the moon. However, the moon does experience a day night cycle, if a bit odd. Since the earth would no longer experience one, it should be higher than 123 °C but I have no idea how high. Temperature on the night side should be far below freezing and will eventually settle at something higher than -233 °C. It should be higher because Earth still have geological activity and active volcanoes, but how much higher I have no idea. Actually, I take that back. Eventually it will end up like that, but it might be possible that water boiling off will create a cloud cover that will temporarily reflect most of the sun and create some atmospheric convection currents moving heat from the day side to the night side. This can not last but I have no idea how long it will last.

I really can't tell what happens inbetween though.

I don't think it will affect the earth's orbit unless whatever caused it also affects the earth's orbit.

That's about all I can tell you. I can't guarantee the correctness either.

Spikey:

Google is your friend.

"The first thing that I should make clear is that a tidally locked planet still rotates once per orbit. If it didn’t, then the same side would not always face the star! I don’t know if that rules out a tidally-locked earth for your episode, but I will assume that it doesn’t.

"If Earth were tidally locked, there would be no seasons. The only change in the amount of sunlight would come from the slight variation in distance from the sun due to Earth’s orbit being slightly out of round. Instead of seasons I suspect there would be zones of different climates depending how far away you are from the center of the side that always faces the sun. Right on the equator of the sun-facing side, I would expect very high temperatures. In the center of land masses you would probably have scorching hot deserts, and near the coasts there would be huge thunderstorms due to the rapid evaporation of the water. As you go farther away from the sub-solar point, the sun would get lower in the sky and you would have gradually cooler climates in rings. I think that the intense heating on the sunlit side and the cooler climates surrounding that area would set up circulation in the atmosphere similar to the Hadley cells that transport heat away from our equator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadley_cell) but the winds caused by this would not be affected by the coriolis force since the planet is rotating so slowly. So in general you would expect surface winds to blow cooler air toward the sub-solar point, where it would be heated, rise and then circulate back toward cooler climates.

"The far side of the planet would be frigid, since it would never see the sun. Its only source of warmth would be ocean circulation and winds from the warm half of the planet. Even on the sunlit side, much of the planet would never see the sun rise very high, and would be quite cold.

"The slow rotation of the Earth would have an effect on the moon too. Due to the moon’s gravity, the Earth bulges a little bit toward the moon. Right now, the earth rotated much faster than the moon orbits, so the tidal bulge is always a little bit ahead of where the moon’s gravity “wants” it to be. This means that the moon’s gravity is actually slowing the earth’s rotation down and the moon is gradually moving away from the earth. If the earth were rotating really slowly, then the exact opposite would happen (I’m assuming that the moon starts off in its current orbit). The moon would gradually try to make the Earth spin faster, and in doing so the moon would lose energy and come closer to the Earth.

"I would imagine that the lack of days, and the sun being at the same place in the sky all the time would have some interesting effects on life too, but I know very little about biology so I’ll leave that for someone more qualified."



UPDATE:


And then Chris pointed me to this:

which includes these maps, showing what happens when you move the centrifugal bulge of the equatorial oceans (the red bits are where the air's too thin to breathe):



and towards the end...



what the program doesn't address is if the earth becomes tidelocked with the sun; instead it slows the turning of the earth down to 6 months of day and 6 months of night. But still plenty of goodness to be had.

Combining that last map then with my first one, where the earth does get stuck one side always sunward, you get:

Option #1 Australiasian Burnation:




Option #2 Eurafrican Fry-Up:



Option #3 Flamerican Inferno:




SO.....my question is this: out of those 3 options, if this was the background for a post-apoc game which would offer the most potential for awesome survival adventure?

... and what if you added vampires?