"Now Jase," I addressed the lad as I made the final adjustments on the telepresence helmet that he strained to keep steady in his arms, "since you're new to the staff I'll explain to you what's going on."
The boy looked up at me and nodded silently.
"Through this machine I can see and hear through the senses of my android daughter Qlippothic." I paused to sip a cup of tea and finish off a scone. "She and her construct brother Ash, along with my neko son Koen are currently in Siberia preparing for a final assault on the Dazdi, a cabal of witches descended from Baba Yaga herself!"
Jase looked a bit pale as he nodded again. Perhaps he inhaled a bit too much of lab fumes on his first day.
"The Dazdi captured some alien technology centuries ago, which makes their brand of necromancy even more dangerous..."
I donned the rather bulky apparatus and flipped on the projector. The images on the wall were blurry at first, but the outline of red wings soaring over the tundra was unmistakable.
"And that is Bloodwing. The angelic fellow accompanying him is Xavael. I'll explain more about them later."
"Now Jase," I addressed the lad as I made the final adjustments on the badly damaged telepresence helmet that he strained to keep steady in his arms...
"Wait a minute..."
I watched Jase's brow as a drop of sweat rolled upwards from his cheek to absorb into the blond mop of his scalp. His blue eyes stared up at me in concern and fear.
"WHAT ON EARTH IS..."
Standing behind him were the Baron and Frau Lowey. Weren't they supposed to be at the Steelhead town hall?
And there was the Founder standing behind them all. But I just saw him in Siberia! He raised his finger to his lips in a stern and silent command.
The Baron passed me a hastily written sheet of paper-
"Herr Doktor - Your daughter's Galvanic Tesseractor exploded during the battle. She and Koen are not yet accounted for. You are experiencing temporal feedback from your connection to her during the explosion. In relation us you are moving BACKWARDS."
I looked down at the helmet again. Thin rivulets of smoke were drawing into the helmet. I was tempted to swallow down another cup of tea, then realized how it would appear.
Frau Lowey passed me another paper. Or perhaps I was actually passing it back to her.
"Darien - This is the third time you have repeated these actions. We allowed you to don the helmet each time hoping it would negate, but now it is too dangerous. You also mentioned His name three times. Backwards apparently counts. He is quite cross."
My attention darted from the page back to the snarling demon, who was taking large backwards strides away from me with a cattle prod in his hand. While I searched in vain for a palindromatic curse I felt a nimbus of electricity gather and arc around my body.
What am I doing on the floor? I'm supposed to be explaining to Jase about..
Bloodwing is standing over me with a cattle prod driving into my chest!
"!!!LOOF UOY TI FO TUO PANSssssssSNAP OUT OF IT YOU FOOL!!!"
Tuesday, November 13
Friday, July 13
Congratulations!
Marshal Fuzzball Ortega and Miss Eugenia Burton have just preformed their wedding vows in a spectacular cathedral in Steelhead, built just for the event. Photos of the event will be collected here. Again, best wishes to the new couple from the Mason clan!
Wednesday, May 30
Caledon Cubidon!
Yes, the Guvna's empire has extended into Minecraft!
I joined when it was still a frontier. The spawn point just happened to be next to a village of testificates. So of course we took the place over and developed it into what we now call Old Towne. Mason Labs is the building on the left at 2:46. I picked the perfect spot, I'm now right next to Grand Central Station!
This video is four weeks old, and you'll be amazed by how much we've built up just from then.
The Guvna keeps updated maps and terraforming pictures at http://caledoncubidon.blogspot.com
If you feel like joining us, give the Guvna a ring and ask him for the server IP address. I'll show around the Labs.
I joined when it was still a frontier. The spawn point just happened to be next to a village of testificates. So of course we took the place over and developed it into what we now call Old Towne. Mason Labs is the building on the left at 2:46. I picked the perfect spot, I'm now right next to Grand Central Station!
This video is four weeks old, and you'll be amazed by how much we've built up just from then.
The Guvna keeps updated maps and terraforming pictures at http://caledoncubidon.blogspot.com
If you feel like joining us, give the Guvna a ring and ask him for the server IP address. I'll show around the Labs.
Friday, May 18
when resolve is depleted
Wrapped in the cold desert winds, whispers and words are uttered. Dueling wits lunge and parry with inferences of eldritch atrocities and cursed legacies. Sigils traced nearly to completion. My name is uttered three times. Have you forgotten the price so soon, Seventh Son? Did you expect the same results after all that has transpired? I have other concerns. Are you so helpless without me?
High above MariKesh Mondrago a crimson star roars across the sky. A mortal responds with terror and laughter that her story is to be woven into the Chronicles.
Welcome to House Bloodwing, Devnet.
High above MariKesh Mondrago a crimson star roars across the sky. A mortal responds with terror and laughter that her story is to be woven into the Chronicles.
Welcome to House Bloodwing, Devnet.
Tuesday, January 10
News for the Role-Players
If you haven't been following on Twitter, it's official as of January 9th: work begins apace on a new iteration of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Wizards of the Coast refuses as of yet to call it "5th Edition", but instead use the hashtag #dndnext.
The current 4th Edition has been controversial, to say the least. I didn't join the bandwagon for the primary reason that I was impressed with the major remodeling in version 3.0/3.5 (still not perfect of course, but what is?) and their Open Gaming License that unleashed the creativity of third-party publishers. Truth be told, it was hard enough to get my friends to try that game instead of the old Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition which my generation of gamers has practically memorized.
When I thumbed through the 4E Players Handbook, I honestly did not like what I saw. I already had a cohesive gameworld written up from years of play, and I wasn't ready to add Half-Dragons as a standard race for players. Also, characters had "healing surges" (the equivalent of jumping up and saying "just a flesh wound!") which made Clerics far less important. The consensus among detractors is that it tries too hard to emulate online games like World of Warcraft, and tries too hard to balance out the powers of all player types. Others say 4e de-emphasizes the non-combat aspects of roleplaying to the point where it appeals more to wargamers. There has been a gradual inflation of powers over the editions, to the point that some complain it's harder than ever to actually challenge the players. To the point, there's a subgenre called #fourthcore (organized by @saveversusdeath) that specializes in ultra-deadly dungeons in the style of Tomb of Horrors.
WotC must have known they had a problem on their hands when Pazio's game Pathfinder, which is based off the 3.5 engine, won more awards than 4e. Add to that the growing popularity of the Old School Renaissance, a collection of gamers who seek to keep the older versions of D&D alive with retro-clones such as Basic Fantasy, Lords & Labyrinths, OSRIC and Lamentations of the Silver Princess. Dungeon Crawler Classics takes a wide left turn from the retro-clones, as I mentioned earlier.
A phenomenon that intrigues me as of late are the FLAILSNAILS Conventions. A sort of Brotherhood of Old-School Gamers With Cams. I watched an online game recently. With hyperlinked editable maps, character sheets, even dice-rolling programs, everyone was having fun. All we were missing was the pizza, junk food and soda!
I've volunteered to become a FLAILSNAILS Dungeon Master. I'm available most nights at 10pm EST (that's 7pm SLT for my virtual world friends) and would love to run a group of players through some of my old adventures!
Special thanks to @DreadGazeebo for hosting an online discussion on recent gaming events and the forces behind them. And yes, I will try 4e if you DM. I think an Artificer will do the trick...
As always, civil discourse is welcome below.
The current 4th Edition has been controversial, to say the least. I didn't join the bandwagon for the primary reason that I was impressed with the major remodeling in version 3.0/3.5 (still not perfect of course, but what is?) and their Open Gaming License that unleashed the creativity of third-party publishers. Truth be told, it was hard enough to get my friends to try that game instead of the old Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition which my generation of gamers has practically memorized.
When I thumbed through the 4E Players Handbook, I honestly did not like what I saw. I already had a cohesive gameworld written up from years of play, and I wasn't ready to add Half-Dragons as a standard race for players. Also, characters had "healing surges" (the equivalent of jumping up and saying "just a flesh wound!") which made Clerics far less important. The consensus among detractors is that it tries too hard to emulate online games like World of Warcraft, and tries too hard to balance out the powers of all player types. Others say 4e de-emphasizes the non-combat aspects of roleplaying to the point where it appeals more to wargamers. There has been a gradual inflation of powers over the editions, to the point that some complain it's harder than ever to actually challenge the players. To the point, there's a subgenre called #fourthcore (organized by @saveversusdeath) that specializes in ultra-deadly dungeons in the style of Tomb of Horrors.
WotC must have known they had a problem on their hands when Pazio's game Pathfinder, which is based off the 3.5 engine, won more awards than 4e. Add to that the growing popularity of the Old School Renaissance, a collection of gamers who seek to keep the older versions of D&D alive with retro-clones such as Basic Fantasy, Lords & Labyrinths, OSRIC and Lamentations of the Silver Princess. Dungeon Crawler Classics takes a wide left turn from the retro-clones, as I mentioned earlier.
A phenomenon that intrigues me as of late are the FLAILSNAILS Conventions. A sort of Brotherhood of Old-School Gamers With Cams. I watched an online game recently. With hyperlinked editable maps, character sheets, even dice-rolling programs, everyone was having fun. All we were missing was the pizza, junk food and soda!
I've volunteered to become a FLAILSNAILS Dungeon Master. I'm available most nights at 10pm EST (that's 7pm SLT for my virtual world friends) and would love to run a group of players through some of my old adventures!
Special thanks to @DreadGazeebo for hosting an online discussion on recent gaming events and the forces behind them. And yes, I will try 4e if you DM. I think an Artificer will do the trick...
As always, civil discourse is welcome below.
Saturday, December 31
The Yearly Report
Early in the year, the Bloodwing were ambushed were just outside the city of Cala Mondrago by the Daughters of Baba Yaga, a coven of witches that integrated captured alien technology into their eldritch magic. Bloodwing was kidnapped, but the Yaga ship was intercepted by Nova and Six just as the demon dealt vengeance to his captors. Ash was catapulted to a digital dimension by strange energies, and joined a rebellion in that world to prevent a genocide. Bloodwing realized he had been infected by a witch's curse soon after he boarded the Sixes and Sevens as his body quite literally fell to pieces.
When Bloodwing was returned to the site of the altercation, Qlippothic (who gave up a chance a becoming fully human to rescue her brother) and Koen used Bloodwing's remains to form a conduit through which Ash (and his fellow survivors of the failed resistance, dubbed the Digital Knights) returned to our world. Bloodwing cast a Homunculi ritual to turn his detached pieces into miniature versions of himself to wreak havoc on the witches alongside the Digital Knights.
As I was observing from afar, I failed to notice a "noob" avatar by the name of "Bishop3" sit next to me in the sandspeeder, and in typical outlander fashion refused to leave even when the Yaga ships returned for a pitched battle. Little did I know that Mr. Bishop3 was actually my clone-brother Marcus Gabriel Mason!
I had to sabotage my own vehicle to disarm Marcus and keep the sandspeeder from plowing through the city itself. Things went from bad to worse as Marcus's psychic essence transferred to Ash, who aimed his weapon at me. Qli fired from a distance, destroying Ash's frame. However, Ash had self-ejected his hard drive into the sand nanoseconds before the moment of impact, and Marcus had likewise fled the doomed construct's body.
It was a Phyrric victory. Half of the Digital Knights had fallen, and just as we were surveying the carnage, the city of Cala Mondrago exploded before our eyes. The chained genii that powered the newest of the Steamlands revolted and turned the artificial oasis back into the dust from whence it came.
The flock of Bloodwing homunculi migrated to Steelhead, where Duchess Fauve Aeon used her stitchpunk magicks to resew the demon into a new bishoen form.
Just as we were catching our breath, we received word from my father that the Demon Wasps had hatched a new queen, and had opened a portal to conquer a nearby dimension. We boarded my ancestor's airship the Bloodwing's Revenge and tesseracted to that world, where we allied with Captain Helen de Fer of the pirate airship Dame de Fer and slew the gargantuan Queen of the Demon Wasps.
A few months later I was summoned to deal with a zombie-plague spreading through Steelhead. This was a curiously morphic affliction that managed to overcome even my own defenses, and I succumbed to the madness of Undeath. It took a time-travelling member of the Steelhead Air Force to shoot me with an antidote from my own inoculation gun!
After using the new serum to cure the rest of Steelhead, I returned to New Babbage to investigate a time-travelling artifact warning about something called the Dark Aether. Since the entire city seems to be coordinating on solving this issue, I took a hiatus to regain my strength.
Now, it saddens me to relate...
Last week, Ash had located the factory where the Daughters of Baba Yaga were building their attack craft in the Siberian wastes. Qlippothic, Ash, Koen, Bloodwing and Xavael, along with the remaining contingent of Digital Knights assaulted the factory and destroyed it. However, there were losses on our side.
The Clockwinder informed me that a faraway explosion had unbalanced some of his pendulums. He pointed Northeast. My instruments confirmed a seismic disruption from the site of the factory. After Bloodwing destroyed Baba Yaga, the factory self-destructed in a ball of atomic fire. The Bloodwing's Revenge barely escaped the blast zone, but the far-reaching electromagnetic pulse obliterated the surviving Digital Knights. Qlippothic and Koen stayed behind in an attempt to disarm the self-destruct mechanism. I must assume they tesseracted away before the explosion. But they could be anywhere and anywhen. I can do nothing but wait for them to return.
As always, we hope you have enjoyed the tales of our adventures. And as we say before the start of every year, our greatest adventures are yet to come!
Sincerest Wishes,
Dr. Darien James Mason
P.S. I also published a story in Tales of New Babbage Volume I. Profits go to maintaining the city. GO BUY IT!
When Bloodwing was returned to the site of the altercation, Qlippothic (who gave up a chance a becoming fully human to rescue her brother) and Koen used Bloodwing's remains to form a conduit through which Ash (and his fellow survivors of the failed resistance, dubbed the Digital Knights) returned to our world. Bloodwing cast a Homunculi ritual to turn his detached pieces into miniature versions of himself to wreak havoc on the witches alongside the Digital Knights.
As I was observing from afar, I failed to notice a "noob" avatar by the name of "Bishop3" sit next to me in the sandspeeder, and in typical outlander fashion refused to leave even when the Yaga ships returned for a pitched battle. Little did I know that Mr. Bishop3 was actually my clone-brother Marcus Gabriel Mason!
I had to sabotage my own vehicle to disarm Marcus and keep the sandspeeder from plowing through the city itself. Things went from bad to worse as Marcus's psychic essence transferred to Ash, who aimed his weapon at me. Qli fired from a distance, destroying Ash's frame. However, Ash had self-ejected his hard drive into the sand nanoseconds before the moment of impact, and Marcus had likewise fled the doomed construct's body.
It was a Phyrric victory. Half of the Digital Knights had fallen, and just as we were surveying the carnage, the city of Cala Mondrago exploded before our eyes. The chained genii that powered the newest of the Steamlands revolted and turned the artificial oasis back into the dust from whence it came.
The flock of Bloodwing homunculi migrated to Steelhead, where Duchess Fauve Aeon used her stitchpunk magicks to resew the demon into a new bishoen form.
Just as we were catching our breath, we received word from my father that the Demon Wasps had hatched a new queen, and had opened a portal to conquer a nearby dimension. We boarded my ancestor's airship the Bloodwing's Revenge and tesseracted to that world, where we allied with Captain Helen de Fer of the pirate airship Dame de Fer and slew the gargantuan Queen of the Demon Wasps.
A few months later I was summoned to deal with a zombie-plague spreading through Steelhead. This was a curiously morphic affliction that managed to overcome even my own defenses, and I succumbed to the madness of Undeath. It took a time-travelling member of the Steelhead Air Force to shoot me with an antidote from my own inoculation gun!
After using the new serum to cure the rest of Steelhead, I returned to New Babbage to investigate a time-travelling artifact warning about something called the Dark Aether. Since the entire city seems to be coordinating on solving this issue, I took a hiatus to regain my strength.
Now, it saddens me to relate...
Last week, Ash had located the factory where the Daughters of Baba Yaga were building their attack craft in the Siberian wastes. Qlippothic, Ash, Koen, Bloodwing and Xavael, along with the remaining contingent of Digital Knights assaulted the factory and destroyed it. However, there were losses on our side.
The Clockwinder informed me that a faraway explosion had unbalanced some of his pendulums. He pointed Northeast. My instruments confirmed a seismic disruption from the site of the factory. After Bloodwing destroyed Baba Yaga, the factory self-destructed in a ball of atomic fire. The Bloodwing's Revenge barely escaped the blast zone, but the far-reaching electromagnetic pulse obliterated the surviving Digital Knights. Qlippothic and Koen stayed behind in an attempt to disarm the self-destruct mechanism. I must assume they tesseracted away before the explosion. But they could be anywhere and anywhen. I can do nothing but wait for them to return.
As always, we hope you have enjoyed the tales of our adventures. And as we say before the start of every year, our greatest adventures are yet to come!
Sincerest Wishes,
Dr. Darien James Mason
P.S. I also published a story in Tales of New Babbage Volume I. Profits go to maintaining the city. GO BUY IT!
Friday, December 23
Happy Holidays to You and Yours!
Happy Chanukah and Merry Christmas!
I received the most wonderful gift today...
A copy of Tales of New Babbage Volume 1, with a retelling of my story "The Sulphurstick Girl"! All proceeds go to the server costs of the city! A perfect stocking-stuffer for your little urchins, in addition to the lump of coal she's been begging you for!
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