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Showing posts with label OSR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OSR. Show all posts

Sunday, January 28, 2024

Carolac - a setting sketch for a Moorcockian phantasy


Carolac

The planet of Carolac hangs deep in the void of space. It is surrounded by a nimbus of cold light. Some say it is divine, but most philosophers are in doubt.

The world of Carolac is caught in the grim of struggle of Law and Chaos. On each side there are powerful factions.

Aklamakan – the Forbidden City

The forbidden City of Aklamakan was home to last school of necromancy and still the dead may walk in this city. In the past it was run by the brotherhood of the powerful necromancer Chi’ing until the armies of the Theocracy destroyed the brotherhood.

The mercenary bands

The mercenary bands consist mostly of the remnants of lost armies crushed by the Court of the Sun God. Most of their leaders are favorable to Chaos.

Many of the bands have disbanded in later years, and there are now only three banners that still fly with any pride.

The Northern Earls

The Northern Earls are declining in power and influence. Their raiding ships and their dwarfbuilt submersibles are no longer a threat as most coastal settlements have built strong fortifications against the sea. The Earls of the north’s growing wealth also led to jealousy and infighting.



Typical Northern Earl

In twelve years, thirteen Kings of the North have been slain by rival Earls. So, the Northern raiders remain neutral. The older earls have now become toothless fools, some younger Earls plot with other powers to regain the former glory in the face of laughter and ridicule from their elders.

Tarentus – The city of Thieves

Tarentus is flourishing as its grip on both trade and larceny strengthens their monopoly on trade. Not paying taxes to the Sun Court also helps.


The traditional arms of Tarentus

Spilling out of its original walls, order within Tarentus is only whisper thin. Might makes right in many quarters of this city, yet the most excessive transgression is shackled by a deep-seated common interest and a leeriness against the outside world.

The nominal rulers of the city, the adjudicators, keep the city neutral in outlook, but it is obvious that the city has much to fear from the armies of the Sun Court.

Suspected demonists the adjudicators probably also face dismal personal fates should Tarentus fall.

The Court of the Sun God

The Court of the Sun God is a theocratic feudal republic, built on military might and the repression of free thought. Heretics by the dozen are burned in huge ovens in the Circus of Saint Carla-Sissy. The Sun Council is allied to Law.

The great church-lords of the Sun Court control large territories where both commoners and knights swear a personal fealty to them. The armies of the Court have conquered lands and quashed most of their rival sovereignties.



I am in debt to the rules and guidelines for creating your own world in Black Sword Hack - Ultimate Chaos Edition by Kobayashi. Black Sword is an awesome game, it has awesome art and you should check it out.

Thursday, September 23, 2021

G'ldaling

black/white, car, black, volvo, 240, monokrom, In PxHere

G'ldalings were first created by me for the #2017BÅTSJ competition on the Norwegian rollespill.info Facebook group. I repost them here for the enjoyment of whom it may concern. There is also a rollespill.info website. Both FB group and website are (mainly) in Norwegian.

G'ldings are an ancient race. They arrived on Earth aeons ago, lay dormant beneath the clay of the Trøndelag region, watching and waiting for humanity, a breed always in turmoil and fueled by desire, to reveal a way to destroy their world letting the aliens harvest the energy of all living things as they expire.

To accomplish their mission they eventually took the form of automobile, especially ones of the Volvo 240 make and model. The combustion engines of these perversely majestic mastodont's were perfect to enhance humanity self-destructive purpose by pumping noxious gases into their own atmosphere. The effects of the poison rendering the world in chaos, an exhilarating prospect to the alien minds encased in the metallic husks.

Working their psionic powers through intense electronic music the G'ldalings also created human followers. The Knights of Volvo, shotgun toting and moonshine swilling men and women, patrolling the highways and byways of middle Norway fueled by psychotropic mushrooms and an incoherent but strict code of honor. These knights, unaware of the aliens true purpose, remain staunch protectors against the entropic forces of the bloodthirsty Norwegian troll population. Doing good in their mind, yet in reality serving the ultimate evil.

The G'dalings are, of course, unaffected by the doings of the human minions. The aliens are content in letting humanity, by virtue of it's thanatonic desire for mobility and superiority, destroy itself. Slowly but surely.

There are three ranks among G'ldalings denoted by accouterments added to their automobile body. Lieutenant rank (9HD) G'ldalings have plush dice dangling from their rear-view mirrors. Captains (10HD) sport a gearstick topped with a human skull as a symbol of ultimate mockery towards humanity.

G'ldalings; HD 8-10; AC 3 [16]; Att: Ramming attack (4d12); SV 4; Special: Magic resistance 70%, +1 or better weapons to hit, anyone inside a G'daling listnening to its base-pounding music must make a saving throw or fall under the effects of a Charm Person spell; Move 18; AL C; 

Saturday, April 10, 2021

The Fireclown (for Troika)

A medieval court jester wearing a mask
They have killed the great sun jester
Who danced between the stars
They have stripped him of his manhood
Signs of Venus and of Mars
The cynics left him weeping
And the jackals left him torn
And the jester reaches out bind hands
He can touch the stars no more.
    (The Great Sun Jester, Blue Öyster Cult)


The Fireclown

Dedicated to my friend G. I miss your laughter and your cutting words every day.

The Fireclown laugh in the face of the masked judges who sit silently in the auditoriums. Their smile is too powerful, their blade too quick and their words cut too deep for him to fear them. There are few authorities that can touch the Fireclown. They blind and elude, leaving a hard hot laughter behind to shame those that would use power to oppress or demean. The Fireclown speaks cunning anger to power, and makes fun of the powerful. Yet, unseen to the eyes of those that follow, the words rebound into their own body. Slowly the Fireclown bleeds out, but for one last death of a tyrant.

Possessions

Sun Jester Hat, sparkling with mirrors and golden bells
A Balisong knife
A pad of sheets containing the latest lambast of the unfairness of life

Advanced Skills

2 Spell -  Babble
3 Spell - Flash
2 Knife fighting
2 Secret signs - clowns
1 Acrobatics
1 Stealth

(Thanks to Blue Öyster Cult and apologies to Michael Moorcock)