The Terpsichorean Sodality welcome the Grand Commodore

 The latest post over at Grand Commodore has a great number of Animal Men listed. I read it over, appreciating the Osprey Man and the Musk Ox man, among others.

Then it occurred to me that there was some overlap between the various Avian Animal Men and the Aviscaputs listed in The Terpsichorean Sodality of the Bird People, my entry for the False Machine Dungeon Poem challenge back in February 2021. These were less animalistic - and definitely more English - than HCK's Animal Men (as I even observed at the time!) But there's enough of the bird species used in TSotBP* that overlap with this new post that I feel I'd quite like to fill in the gaps.

Anyway, referring to the list of Sodality Members.

1. Hoopoe Tietjens.  [Hoopoe]
2. Picador Vansittart. [Magpie]
3. Raptora Uexkull.  [Kestrel]
4. Iolanthe Wrenfield. [Wren]
5. Lanner Coningsby. [Lanner falcon]
6. Urgulanilla Guillemot. [Guillemot]
7. St. John Goldfinch. [Goldfinch]
8. Clemency Yaffle. [Green woodpecker]
9. Gymkhana Dabchick. [Dabchick]
10. Monedulus Alleline. [Jackdaw]
11. Egret Dalziel. [Great white egret]
12. Hilarion Ptarmigan. [Ptarmigan]

Magpie Men already exist, as do Wren Men and Kestrel Men. For completeness, here are their entries.

Kestrel man

The animal man attack helicopters; hover and dive
A lot of people like their coats
Discourse tends to be sort of ratchet

Flying (don't need traverse to remain airborne), +d6 Damage when diving at least 15’

***

Magpie man

It’s not that you have to be a thief, it’s that skill and interest have a compelling channelizing effect
You are profoundly intelligent, however intelligence is orthogonal to impulse. Impulse may win out against reason. Desire often wins out against reason
You can sing beautifully; that’s one way to gain coins (them being shiny is less important than reputed)
Or you can do what people will expect you to do
Pica pica
Their mate-attraction is done a little bit more suavemente than most bird men

-1 Str, +3 Int, -3 Wis, +3 Cha, +3 to Bardic performance, Advantage to Pickpocket, Advantage to Lockpicking, Professional Skill: Numismatist (Int)

 ***

Wren man

Songs appeal to dilettantes
Attracted to the caves of the Bat Men and the Cave Swallow men; often serve them as heralds, troubadours, and auxiliaries. Despite enjoying insect man flesh, wren men often serve with antman armies, as well
Small-bird Napolewren complex**

-1 Str, +2 Cha, +2 to Bardic performance

 ***

And on the remainder from TSotBP.

Hoopoe man

Massive crrrrresssssst

Long elegant beak, which seems like it would be a bad idea to be on the wrong end of

Occasionally claims to be the king of the birds; this is amusing to eagles, offensive to swans and an affectation to most others

Probably never going to invent a religion, but pretty good at keeping one going (occasionally, one will turn out to be a particularly magnetic cult leader)

Flying, Animosity: Swan men, Advantage to Intimidate

 ***

Lanner falcon man

Fly best in straight lines, and take a lot of airborne prey - if kestrels are attack helicopters, they are interceptors

Like the savannah, great on a safari

Cooperative hunters, no glory boys here (by Raptors standards)

+2 Str, Flying, Copes well with the heat

***

Guillemot man

Cliff dwellers, highly fertile
Can attack water-dwellers in one-minute dives to surprising depths and swim 30' underwater
Mostly spend their time fishing and ignoring you

Some are black and white, some brown and white. The abstract curves of their patterns have led guillemots to develop a form of folk-art rather like dazzle camouflage 

 

Flying, Diving, -1 Cha  

*** 

Goldfinch man

Small, with red, white and black faces like exaggerated theatrical masks

Excellent singers and quick learners, frequently find a place as an artiste of some kind (sparrows are far more down-to-earth and easier to get on with backstage)

They know how popular they are, and how much the powerful like to keep them around - they are almost always adopting a social persona of some kind  

-1 Str, +2 Cha, +2 Int, +3 to Bardic Performance 

 ***

Green woodpecker man***

Sleek, red-headed. 
Thick beak, thick skull.

Better joiners than lumberjacks; they pair up with Beaver men to corner the woodworking industry. Vertical integration: tree-roots and tree-trunks!

Sounds like they're laughing at you, probably aren't

 

+1 Con, Flying, Affinity: Beaver Men, Can make a d4 attack that ignores light armour or breaks a wooden shield

*** 

Dabchick man

Small, dumpy
Like to live by lakes and other smaller bodies of water

Better in the water than on land, if not quite to penguin levels 

Beautiful chestnut throat and cheeks 

Have a reputation in some circles as being really good harbourmasters and lockkeepers. Have a reputation in other circles as being good smugglers.

-1 Str,  Flying, Advantage to stealth in water

*** 

Jackdaw man

Look faintly clerical and shabby, decent mimic, excellent for spy work in cosmopolitan settings
Social, but not always very talkative
Smaller than Crow men and Raven men, and less of a target for Swan men
A jackdaw man is reputed to have invented the first joke

+1 Cha, Flying, Choose 1 additional language, Suffers no disadvantages in ruins and tunnels

*** 

Great white egret man

Long tall white streak with thin legs and manic eyes. 
Will squint at you like a librarian then puncture you full of holes with a spear-sharp beak
Politely baffled by people who fish for a hobby. Utterly antisocial white fishing

Good with a harpoon, thinks tridents and eelspears are for losers

Flying, d8 beak attack with the reach of a polearm, Animosity: Frog men

*** 

Ptarmigan man

Undergo a personality shift with their winter plumage - from dowdy summer shyness to glacial winter hauteur
Not a frequent flier.

They taste delicious, and they know it.

Not afraid of thunderstorms

+2 Cha in Winter, -2 Cha in Summer 

*** 

I regret not making Urgulanilla Guillemot a Gannet.

I suspect that the Great white egret man would serve as a heron man also.

* Pronounced 'Tsot-Bop', if you must...
** Alas, a missed opportunity to discuss London architecture.
***I'd forgotten that these turned up in the Three Mile Tree.

Cold War, Fever Dreams

The looming, biomechanical, Freudian image of the Alien franchise may not immediately hint at the Cold War. Certainly, the first few films were made during the 1970s and 1980s, but there's not much in them immediately about the NATO-Soviet clash. Weyland-Yutani might be part of the military industrial complex, but there's little enough that would demonstrate that in Alien. Aliens shows us the Colonial Marines, with all their Vietnam-era looseness of discipline, wildness of manner and military overconfidence, though that's in some ways quite partial. Where we really get a Cold War image is in the un-produced material by William Gibson for Alien 3; this situates the United Americas against the Union of Progressive Peoples (the Soviet Union, Germany, China, Vietnam). Gibson's screenplay is even set in a pair of space stations facing one another along a boundary line. The UPP have continued to crop up in wider Alien material since. So, a Greater US of A and a re-jigged Second World with a patched Sino-Soviet split. All sensical enough, given how Alien has an aesthetic and sensibility continually with one foot in the 70s and 80s. 

But I'm missing something here. Something stranger. In the material of the very first film, we have mention of a 'Three World Empire'. Ron Cobb's notes suggest this as something like a stage of Britain's spacefaring development. One notes the mix of British and American cast in Alien - which was filmed in Britain.
Later material indicates that the Three World Empire is a merging of Japan and Britain (along with a number of Commonwealth and South-East Asian countries). 

In some ways, this is sort of silly. Taking the Weyland-Yutani merger - a name derived from Leyland (the British car company) and a neighbour of Cobb's** - and having the political sphere mirror the commercial. It's a little too close to really convince, without some greater form of detail.***

And yet...the name, with the faintly occult overtones. The Union Flag three-sided vortex, which hints at the British Leyland symbol. The presence of a junior partner in the West of this new Cold War. The fish-hook nerd-bait of 'Okay, but how does this actually work?' I can't help feeling that this should be more interesting to people than it is. There should be fan-art and Woyjak material galore. As it is....well, this is it. 

I have to wonder what more could be done with this 70s-echoing Anglo-Japanese culture and economy. Butskellism on a diet of Bushido, courtesy of the MITI? Morning suits for statesmen imported back to Westminster from the National Diet? Consumer electronics and integrated circuits for both the Atlantic and Pacific? An Anglo-Japanese Concorde? James Clavell was Australian-born: perhaps there would be a BBC version of Shogun; or, indeed, Tai-Pan (would Hong Kong continue to be a flashpoint?). You may debate for yourselves the image of Milton Keynes with Zen gardens. 

***

The real time strategy game Red Alert 2, by contrast, is very much embossed with the Cold War. A branch of the Command and Conquer games, Red Alert (which I never played) supposed a removal of Hitler via time-travel and Stalin attempting a conquest of Europe in his place. Red Alert 2 (RA2) had a rejuvenated Soviet Union try again, with an invasion of the United States. 

So far, so Red Dawn. The main thing to discuss is tone (you can look up a more general review elsewhere). Both Allies and Soviets find themselves developing assorted implausible weaponry: Tesla coils, devastating zeppelins, laser tanks, invulnerability courtesy of the 'Iron Curtain', mind controlled giant squid countered by specially trained dolphins, assorted psychic abilities. There was some of this in Red Alert, but far more in RA2. The bigger difference is tone. Red Alert is (by reputation) far more serious. To my mind, this is only mostly true. My goggles tonight are rose-tinted, but there's a few elements of presentation that skew RA2 away from the full-blown cartoonishness of Red Alert 3.**** 

Both Red Alert and RA2 have the live-action cutscenes that are a C&C mainstay, though RA2's, being a few years later, are rather more polished. The characters are more often stereotypes than caricatures. Ray Wise as US President Dugan is in the lightly comic but not implausible role of portraying a personable politician clearly elected in peacetime trying to grapple with a Second Great War (perhaps I'm reading back from Twin Peaks, but is there an air of hidden desperation?). The assorted plot elements are somewhat wilder, though the destruction of Chicago by nuclear bomb is given a certain weight.

More interesting is perhaps the influence of the gameplay on tone. There's a level of pixelated detail to the cities your troops move through that implies a sufficient urban density. Being able to garrison civilian structures helps - there's an echo of Stalingrad in it all. Units frequently have secondary abilities, can gain experience over time  and benefit from close attention; especially so for the Allied faction, but not exclusively so.  When coupled with a campaign that had a number of limited-unit missions, this gives more weight to the lives of your soldiers. Campaign missions would also end with a victory screen giving your par time - the text given if you are under is rather more positive than if you are over. Compare the two texts for one mission here, another here (comparing the actual screens is difficult; apparently people don't like to show the internet that they didn't make the top of the list).

Is this all enough to make you take RA2 seriously? Probably not. Enough to invest you? I think so.

Anyway, I recently encountered and enjoyed a mercenary generator for TF2. Here's something like it for RA2. 

The Second Great War is over. You were a soldier. You aren't any more. You had a little money and a home. You haven't any more. There's rumour of a supply of gold reserves stashed in a devastated region. Perhaps you and some people with stories quite like yours could put these to better use than whatever's being done with them at the moment.

---You were a...[d8]

[1] Bog-standard infantryman (but you do bear a marked resemblance to Clint Eastwood).

[2] Rocket trooper

[3] Tank/APC driver

[4] Airship pilot or jetpack infantry

[5] Spy, saboteur or infiltrator

[6] Armoured exotic energy specialist

[7] Loyal but completely unpredictable dog

[8] Would-be psychic who deserted just before the pioneering brain surgery. You still went through all the training.

---You managed to grab a few things from the supply depot...[d10]

[1] Rapid-deploying portable foxhole

[2] Tesla gauntlet (rubber boots not included).

[3] Lots of dynamite with only the shortest of fuses.

[4] Tinnitus-inducing shoulder-mounted flak cannon

[5] Jetpack that was in the depot for vital maintenance

[6] Pyrokinetic focus module (broken targeting lobes)

[7] Plague-dart sniper rifle. Handle with care.

[8] Disguise Kit (might fool psychics, doesn't fool dogs)

[9] Briefcase of highly useful but curiously fragile tools

[10] Gun that erases people from time. You don't know how it works, how much power is left in the batteries or how you got it. But you do know that you really shouldn't have it, and everyone else knows it too.

---You also managed to obtain a set of wheels....[d8]

[1] Optical camouflage tank perpetually stuck in the form of a Scots pine. 

[2] Nippy little half-track.

[3] Teleporting supply hauler. It can instantly travel to a certain designated location within 30km, but it needs to be recharged by an industrial generator afterwards. Also really uncomfortable to drive.

[4] An airship. Full fuel tanks, full magazines, just had been fully refitted - but still very slow and very obvious. 

[5] Massive cumbersome tank with a set of propaganda speakers mounted on the rear.

[6] A big flat-bed trailer pulled by two skittering arachnoid terror drones.

[7] Six seats welded to a hovering robot tank.

[8] Truck carrying a big mobile radar jammer.

---The Gold is hidden....[d8]

[1] Somewhere at a disused military base in the Adirondacks.

[2] In the cellars of the inn of a remote Serbian mountain town.

[3] On an island in the Florida keys.

[4] At an abandoned mine in the Congo.

[5] Not far from a concealed airstrip in the southern half of Borneo.

[6] In a Mayan temple-cum-guerrilla camp in the Yucatan.

[7] At a farm in the north-east of Sichuan province.

[8] Beneath a major national monument.

---A local militia control the area with the power of.....[d8]

[1] Fleet of lightly-armed but highly mobile stealth helicopters.

[2] A pair of towers firing laser-like 'Prism' rays in a commanding location.

[3] Cloning vats. They can only make one kind of goon, but apparently that's all they need.

[4] Hacked feed to a spy satellite guaranteeing constant intel for the region.

[5] A big electromagnet that can pick up cars from twenty miles away.

[6] A self-propelled cryoshell artillery piece. 

[7] Something that looks like a UFO.

[8] Lots of mobile, customisable APCs - and a machine shop churning out spare parts.

---They are led by a warlord....[d10]

[1] A Frenchman who really likes Westerns.

[2] An incredibly handsome Russian nihilist.

[3] Captain Queeg, if Queeg had spent too long watching prism rays light up the dark.

[4] A bombastic Ruritanian cyborg who spends their free time listening to Wagner.

[5] An American journalist from the Midwest pretending to be a CIA agent. Or is it the other way round?

[6] The key member of a Yugoslav stay-behind network.

[7] Hollywood film star who had the money to get out of California at the right time, but not to get back.

[8] Korean submariner deprived of their submarine, and resentful about it.

[9] Peruvian psychic commando who had to spend three nights in No-Man's Land with a damaged interface unit experiencing hundreds of death agonies and went mad.

[10] Politician from a regional legislature who can't recall whether they were a willing collaborator, a mind-controlled puppet, a deep cover agent, was pretending to be one but not the other or just possibly was any of the above at different times - and really doesn't want anyone else to know.

Yes, it's Kelly's Heroes for RA2. Elements of Yuri's Revenge and certain RA2 mods included. The TF2 merc generator could do nicely for comrades or NPCs. 

Détruir tout: c'est une obligation.

***

By way of an ending, I will point you in the direction of S.M. Stirling's Lords of Creation series - which blend the Space Race with Edgar Rice Burroughs-style Sword and Planet fiction, so that you get American explorers dealing with the consequences of the (human, Bronze Age) Venusians getting their hands on AK-47s. The books are acceptable rather than good, but do offer a setting with a certain amount of potential. To my surprise, there's a third one on the way after seventeen years. 

*But then, I have long been of the opinion that David Lynch's Dune has the meme-making scope of the Star Wars prequels. Many do not act as if they share such a belief.

**I've seen that quote a number of times, but never where or when or to whom Cobb said it. I think the origin is in The Authorized Portfolio of Crew Insignias, by one Jeffrey Walker. 

***There is also comparison with Grenville's article on Brexotica: the dreadful rapacious amoral company is the result of the merger of Old-World hierarchy and the inscrutable Orient - against which freedom-loving American protagonists can rage. Not that (by implication) any polity in the Aliens universe comes across very well.

And yes, it seems that there was a Brexit-themed Aliens novel.

****Yes, Yuri's Revenge was rather more B-Movie. That was an expansion pack, and we may consider the base game without it. 

Manners Maketh ___?

Blame Montefeltro. A post like this is from time to time quite fun, and real life has been in the way lately. Something meatier soon.

Thriller of Manners: Crime's like anything else, really. It has rules - quite strict ones, with lots of people who'll be shocked if you break them - right up until it doesn't. 

Robinsonade of Manners: Trapped on a desolate isle and forced to contemplate his own isolation and the course of his life thus far, a castaway is obliged to fabricate an all-encompassing etiquette manual from scratch in order to rebuild his life and enable him to re-enter Society when rescue finally comes.

Urban Fantasy of Manners: I learnt it the hard way - when on your first date with that vampire with the tousled hair and the leather jacket and the beauty spot, don't order the steak tartare.

Bedroom Farce of Manners: "Gentlemen, now we have found ourselves all in the same lady's wardrobe, how exactly are we to pass the time? There is the signal possibility that we will be here for a while."

Solarpunk of Manners: In the pastel-shaded environmentally-friendly egalitarian neo-tribal future, is there a polite way to say that the neighbour's hollyhocks are overshadowing your solar panels?

Ostern of Manners: In the remote reaches of Pseudobaninsky Oblast, there's a band of desperate men: Tsarist lickspittles, quarrelsome treacherous profit-seeking capitalists, long-winded long-bearded priests - with minds as tangled as their whiskers. Then there's the man who has come to show them a new way to live. 

Submarine Film of Manners: "Cursing like a sailor? Lady, when you are obliged to spend life in close proximity with a double-dozen of your fellows in a tin can built for ten, I assure you that you will develop a very delicate set of customs."

Southern Ontario Gothic of Manners: In the worn Victorian residential quarter of Roxburghe, ON, we are supported - or perhaps impaled - by three pillars. Our British legacy, the frigid Northern weather and the continually twined sight of squalor and prosperity across the border. Nursing these delightful wounds, my fellow petite Roxbourgeoisie have produced a certain strain of propriety suited for scab-picking on Sunday afternoons.....

What else is there? Contributions welcome.

Arborcrawling in the 27th Century

In which a setting frequently referred to as 'Space Hulk in a Tree' is taken back into space.

It is the 27th Century. Everything is in space and everything is very exciting.

On the fringes of humanity's stars lies the Cardigan system, home to five gas giants. Orbiting one of these is the moon of New Llanabba. This is a 'hollow moon', home to a thousand tunnels and extensive cave networks. The intense and rather unpredictable gravity field of Cardigan-3 has drawn into countless asteroids and assorted space junk into New Llanabba, making it a haven for prospectors. A great crater in the surface of the moon called 'Abba's Maw' gives access to the tunnels.

Orbiting New Llanabba is a space staton run by an eclectic ecological group called The Five Mothers. In order to pay for bulbs, fertiliser, seed cuttings, trowels, &c, they allow prospectors and other opportunists the a place to stay in return for a cut of their findings. However, numerous hostile aliens and space bandits lurk in the hollow moon - aside from more natural perils. 

Exploring New Llanabba: Really, you should use Veins of the Earth here. For a quick and silly alternative:

Roll 1d6. That is the number of passages into the cave. 

Roll 1d8. 1=N, 2=NE, &c. That is roughly where the passage enters the cave. 

Roll 1d10. If you get a 9, there is a hole in the floor of the cave. If get a 0, there is a hole in the celling of the cave.

Pick a county at random. That is the shape of the cave.

Perils of New Llanabba: It is very easy for an explorer to run out of oxygen, fusion generators, food pills, &c. And the caverns of the hollow moon are filled with chasms, rubble, unexpected drops, shifting debris, pockets of flammable gas, &c. But you want to know if there is anything you can fight. There is.

Insectoid Horrors: mindless beasts that skitter and whoop. Want to eat you.

Termite Men: organised bands of hostile aliens, who fight with crystalline spears, mucus grenades and packs of giant centipedes. Want you to kill you and take your stuff.

Rock Lobsters: ponderous stone-covered beasts with great pincers. They can spit bio-plasma. Cutting them open reveals them to be filled with tiny glowing shrimp. Want you to go away and stop disturbing their meditations. 

Giant Moths: Attracted to light, hypnotic pattern on their wings. Want to steal your power cells. 

Stranded Precursor: Member of a long-dead ancient species. Confused, powerful, distressed. Want to return home: if this turns out to be impossible, they want to attain dominion over the younger sentients of the galaxy.

Robotic repairman: Looks like a hermit crab made of Meccano. Want to repair something that once crashed in the cave. Willing to use your remains to do so.

Space Amazons: Stronger than you, better hair than you, not terribly interested by you. Wear highly customised spacesuits. Carry beam rifles, heat-seeking slug-guns, attack drones like carbon-fibre falcons and kukris. Interested in opportunities for glory and plunder.

Rival Explorers: Just like you, except they have at least one prominent unattractive trait. You are proud and confident free-spirited mavericks, they are smug, cocky, self-centred renegades. Want what you want. 

One prospecting group has recently made great progress in exploring the hollow moon. These include...

Orsino, Prince of Illyria. Apparently the heir to an entire planet. Looks like a young Shakespearean actor, doesn't always sound like it. Improbably dashing. Equipment: monomolecular sabre, Art Nouveau hunting rifle, dress uniform that makes him look like the pilot of one of the Thunderbirds.

Elrich Kilpatrick. Recipient of a mysterious vision at the galaxy's edge. Now leads a spiritual movement centred on a cosmic power called 'The Destiny'. Quite what this is is unknown, but apparently it means that Kilpatrick must wear a jet-black spacesuit and spend hours on the observation deck staring into space. He is accompanied by his followers, dressed in brightly coloured cheap spacesuits. Equipment: Ornate plasma fusil, energised broadsword, Babel-76 translation circlet.

The Rinians. No taller than a thirteen year-old, skin periwinkle-coloured, there are never less than four of them. They are a hivemind, choosing personal names almost at random from nearby literature. Their origin is unknown, but apparently they have some connection with the second world of the Searle system. Equipment: Aside from the small arms available on New Llanaba, they have an apparently never-ending supply of switchblades, Molotov cocktails and marbles.

Agamemnon. A product of Corinth Cybernetics, an android counsellor and confidante. Stylised bronze plating and chassis, with a detailed unmoving bearded face. Despite being sexless, a previous employer programmed Agamemnon with the mannerisms and social presence of Rudolf Valantino.* Equipment: Sophisticated mapping gear and sensor array, Web grenades, Three Fire-and-forget suicide drones, One-shot Inferno Projector, Tiny laser-derringer for when everything else runs out or breaks.

Gower Macmorris. The Merakians are tall, broad and six limbed. They are covered in thick black fur with distinctive off-white stripes. Each limb has a number of thick claws, quite capable of rending a man in twain. Gower was, for a time, the foremost cat-burglar in the Merak system. He was considered slight and lithe. This makes him an absolute unit of the awe-inspiring variety in human space. Equipment: four big claws, assorted Merakian-sized lockpicks and electronic bypasses, ornate studded war-club stolen from a vault somewhere.

The above have recently come into possession of several Hippogriff-class shuttles. These are aged and require much maintenance but extend their reach marvellously over New Llanaba.

*Or some other suitable matinee idol. 

Referring, variously to this and this. Post written in memory of the departed Pandion. 

Image from the 1981 film Time Bandits, Dir. Terry Gillam.

"When all else fails, have a lizard with a gun come through the door."

This indoor scene needs pepping up. Consult the below, or roll 1d6.

1. The click of clawed feet echo down the road. There is a knock on the door. There are four soldiers outside, each with a cornflower-blue coat and a tall periwinkle shako. Four muskets with four gleaming bayonets are also on display. The first fusilier darts a forked tongue over sharp teeth. "Your pardon, sir, but we have orders to search this house. It is believed to be the site of an illegal printing press."

2. The door's unlocked. That's odd. You're generally quite careful about such things. Your hands ball into fists. You nudge the door open with a toecap. On the other side is the stark muzzle of a sawn-off shotgun, and a scaled hand holding it. "Told you what would happen, O'Grady. Told you what'd happen if you couldn't make yerr payments." The muzzle lowers slightly. "You ain't that bastard O'Grady! Where is he?!"

3. You're in the front parlour. The noise of the street drones on in the background. Then, there are muffled shouts, a cry and an almighty crash somewhere from your front door. You run into the hall. The door has been splintered asunder by the muzzle of a great bronze cannon. Behind it, there is a heaving mass of scaly flesh. You hear military oaths, and the sound of an aristocratic voice. "Packmaster! Get this curséd lizard moving! The Marshal wants these field pieces by the front line tonight!"

4. An iguana with a string tied to it crawls under the cellar door. As the little beast skitters forward, you see that the string is tied to some heavy object. Under the door comes a slim little nickel-plated pistol with a hand-written note: FROM A FRIEND.

5. "Aah, I see you've spotted my old hunting rifle!" Vindemiatrix the Golden rejoins you in the cavernous library, by a typically draconic roaring fire. He hands you another drink: it smells like paraffin and vermouth. "A lovely piece, don't you think? I wonder if it still shoots."

6. Lunchtimes are busy at the Hessian Grill, but it's the one place in the neighbourhood you can get good labskaus. Your order arrives, just as you finish a glass of switchel. Fork loaded, you are about to take your first bite....
"Everybody be cool: this is a robbery!"
Third time this week.

From Warren Ellis's Nextwave: Agents of HATE.

Context is available, but do you really care?

April-May Miscellany

A bit of recent reading/viewing, &c - none of which is really related to TRoAPW, quite deliberately. 

***

Following my own advice, I consume the media of 1950s Britain. The 1952 film The Sound Barrier was directed by David Lean (Brief Encounter, Great Expectations, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr Zhivago, &c), written by Terrence Rattigan, starred Ralph Richardson, Ann Todd and a young Denholm Elliot and has a soundtrack by Malcolm Arnold. If you hadn't guessed, it's about breaking the Sound Barrier.

Well, it looks good - but you might have guessed that. There's an emphasis on technical expertise, to the point of including the planes used and a number of text pilot advisors in the title credits. It is still fiction, of course, dealing with a fictional British aeroplane manufacturer and his efforts to break the Sound Barrier - at a cost to those around him, not least the test pilots. It isn't perhaps the most harrowing of psychological dramas, but there is a persistent element of tension and peril. Aside from that, there is the background of the Second World War (the test pilots are veterans) and the new excitement of the jet engine, with magnificent cloudscape vistas. 

[Incidentally, I am reminded of a past speculation. If Dune is, facetiously, 'Lawrence of Arabia in space' one might hop between David Lean films: accordingly, what does 'Dune, but drawing from Dr Zhivago instead of Lawrence of Arabia' look like? Well, the notion of Bolshevik Harkonnens squaring off against Fremen Cossacks from armoured trains has obvious appeal. But I'm not sure I know enough about the ecology of the taiga to make give this any real staying power.]

***

Dark Benediction is the title of the Gollancz SF Masterworks collection of the short stories of Walter M Miller Jr - best known of A Canticle for Leibowitz.

Behold: the cover.
It does make some remote sense, honest. 

These were largely published in the 1950s, in a variety of places. A number of them have the (expected?) 'Twilight Zone' feel to them, with speculative fiction stories taking place in something very like a mid-twentieth century United States ('I, Dreamer', 'Conditionally Human' and 'You Triflin' Skunk' are among these). Then there are a few post-apocalyptic stories where the destroyed society seems to have resembled in some fashion the then contemporary US: the titular 'Dark Benediction' is among these.  Further out, some stories are absolutely science fiction, dealing with the colonisation of Mars or the spread of Humanity across the Galaxy (see 'Blood Bank' or 'The Big Hunger'). 

The post-apocalyptic and space-faring stories fairly obviously bring the mind to A Canticle for Leibowitz: certainly this is the case with 'Dark Benediction', with the notable presence of a Catholic monastery in a post-pandemic America. A series of practical but rather unlikable protagonists fill Miller's post-apocalpytic stories: this functions at its best in 'Dark Benediction' with an unsettling plague that causes the infected to strongly desire to touch the uninfected (they are still, however, quite conscious and alive: zombies they are not). The response of individuals and groups to the threat of intrusion is perhaps more unpleasant for being a 'cosy catastrophe': no atomic bombs have been let off, and infrastructure is largely intact, if abandoned.  

'Vengeance for Nikolai' is the final story in this collection, initially published in the March 1957 issue of Venture Science Fiction. The tone and content of 'Vengeance' is rather different from the other stories in the collection: the word 'Gonzo' occurs to me. It probably needs to be experienced free of any brief summary I might offer. 

***

To Everything A Season is a brand new book detailing life 'in and around a particular village on the edge of the Cambridgeshire fens'. The author is Charles Moseley; it was published by Merlin Unwin - also known for Manual of a Traditional Bacon Curer, A Countryman's Creel and Much ado about Mutton.

Why do I choose to bring it to your attention? It is well-written, to be sure, and engaging - drawing together agriculture, literature, folklore and history. Beyond that, however, it is deeply knit with the natural world of its setting. It is a signal reminder of the thousands of textures and sounds and sights of the countryside, often ill-served by film or video games or the tabletop. I accept the limitations of these mediums and all the shorthand they might use to convey what a book has pages to detail - but one ought to know from what the shorthand is working.

***

Fritz Lang's 1931 film M is presumably sufficiently well known as a work from that famous director to need little introduction. I had been geared up to expect something more dreadful and leering - something more in the vein of Nosferatu. The back of the box even describes it as having 'cinema's first serial killer'. Well, maybe. But that's not something to give me any particular chills in a world which has absorbed The Silence of the Lambs and Se7en as cinematic benchmarks.

Of course, that doesn't mean M is not worth seeing. It is interesting observing the streets and shops and office blocks of an early 1930s Germany, with or without a whistling Peter Lorre. I suppose the main effect I get from M is one of mundanity: the serial killer is a round, slightly gormless man. The police forces of the nameless city (which is Berlin in all but name) are neither hyper-effective nor feckless beyond belief. The principal detective is not a Sherlock Holmes-esque mastermind, nor the loose cannon of cliche: he makes relatively few great jumps of deduction, he is physically unimpressive and is quite willing to operate through his subordinates. The criminal unions of the underworld are, well, common thieves, con-men, pickpockets - not suave cat burglars or mobsters in loud suits. Their spokesperson, Der Schränker (the Safecracker, played by Gustaf Gründgens) is unpleasant - but he's just an overbearing tough who dresses to advantage and has some hazy notion of protocol. 

On top of all that, some of it is comic. The mishaps of some of the underworld unions (The rope ladder!), the workings of the Beggars' Guild - the latter is some of the best 'Thieves' Guild' stuff I've seen put to film. Hindsight tempts the viewer to look for allegory - but there's more applicable material than there is obvious parallel. The atmosphere of mob justice, police raids and debates over capital punishment is rather telling, but is nonspecific. 

***

The Search for Immortality: Tomb Treasures of Han China is the catalogue of an exhibition that passed my way a few years back (images of which have appeared on this blog before). I opened it up again as a purposeful break from TRoAPW .... and was reminded quite how much of it there was! 

I'm ashamed, really, to try and summarise it all in a few paragraphs. It details the contents of a number of tombs from across the heartland of China (largely from those great stretches of plain between Beijing and Nanjing, around the Yellow and Tangtze Rivers) made for royalty during the Han dynasty - that is to say, contemporary with the late Roman Republic and lasting until after Marcus Aurelius was Emperor, about the time of Septimus Severus. 

Firstly, the craftsmanship of the grave goods is fascinating. Ornaments and utensils alike appear, with ritual or practical functions. Government seals coexist with dagger-axes. Terracotta figures act as musicians or dancers, albeit not life-sized - as compared with the rather more famous Terracotta Army. Jade ornaments furnish the dead with protection in the afterlife: suits of jade squares for the very wealthy, and simpler veils or orifice plugs for the merely wealthy. Not all of this is Chinese in origin: imported luxuries coexist with domestic products (the ornamental belt plaques are one such example: gold with closely entwining animals). And, of course, one recalls that much material may have decayed with time.

Secondly, it is a reminder of the strength of catalogues as a genre. Here are the dissipate elements described and categorised: here is how they come together. I don't suppose an audience with an awareness of, IE, Hot Springs Island or Veins of the Earth needs a reminder of this. All the same, the scale of this was very worth returning to.

Especially as it emphasises the size of China, even at this time. I keep needing to remind myself of the distances and regions involved - and I begin to long for an understanding of that context that doesn't rely upon the abstractions of, well, a Sporcle quiz. Not that I need to know the names of every Han Dynasty commandery, any more than I do the name of every Roman province. Either way, this is one to delve into again.

***

Well, chaps, what else should I jolly well be reading?

November Miscellany

A few things I would like to write about or draw attention to, none of which quite constitute a post all of their own. 

***

Sumption of Peakrill has a Kickstarter going for something called 'Mostly Harmless Meetings'. This is a series of social and possibly whimsical encounters derived from the English countryside, and may well be worth a look. For my part, I know from the tabletop that Sumption has an abiding interest in the land, based as he is in the wilds of Northumbria, and seems willing to apply that. I am of course a wretched southron, who can't tell parkin from lardy cake*, but I bring this to your attention all the same. 

***

Far from rural England, we look to L'Empire du Soleil Défunt, as reviewed here. It's about an apocalyptic Early Modern Japan, written by Aldo Pappacoda. It runs by the compact 2D+ system (a first for me). Take a look at the second para of that review - the devastation and high magic implied by it make the idea instantly fascinating. 

Further, while the apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic are well-known sub-genres, there is something interesting about the period apocalyptic. My comments on Fallout aside, making the mechanisms of an apocalypse period-apt is an interesting approach. The notions of (say) aliens invading during the Second World War or a zombie plague bedevilling the Roman Empire are familiar enough, but this is somewhat new. I'm not sure if I can quite conjure something comparable. 

What if the Pilgrims on the Mayflower saw a sinful Britain sink below the waves as the Godly left for the New World? (If Robert Eggers made it, I'd watch it). How do the Varangian Guard in Micklegard react to Ragnarok? What if Hesiod's Men of Iron were succeeded or subverted by Men of Rust? 

Of course, the closer one gets to the present, the less supernatural and less comfortable such themes may be: thus, an early Victorian 'You fools, Malthus was right all along!' scenario. Still, the idea of the period apocalypse has potential. 

***

I recently acquired a copy of Max Beerbohms's Seven Men and Two Others. I knew of Beerbohm as a caricaturist and comic writer (see his parody of early twentieth century British authors, A Christmas Garland; parody is one way to learn the style and reputation of historical figures swiftly). So I anticipated the literary world and a spot of 1890s Bohemia - which I got. What I wasn't expecting was the supernatural elements, the games with reputation and memory, the occasional sense of peril and malevolence (how did Argallo die?!).

There is a form of comedy, and I'm not sure what to call it, that has in its centre a very genuine horror - something more supernatural than an unhappy marriage, I mean. (Actually, a theological-inflected setting in which an unhappy marriage was a supernatural curse would be interesting.) Anyway, Beerbohm's Seven Men (the two others were added later) has that, as well as a note of Borges. Give 'Enoch Soames' a read, and see what you think.

***

EDIT: An addition is the latest entry of the podcast Bad Books for Bad People, co-hosted by Guignol of Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque. This interesting, firstly in that they are discussing Peter Fehervari's Requiem Infernal - part of his Dark Coil sequence. Secondly, it is two people - speculative fiction fans - discussing Warhammer 40,000 somewhat from the outside (with apt musical choices).  Much appreciated, anyway. Kudos for introducing me to concept of the qareen.

*This may be a lie. Both cakes are however lovely. 

Terpsichorean Sodality of the Bird People

Over at False Machine, a 'dungeon poem challenge' has been set. I've been toying with some ideas for this, and they at least demand an airing - though I doubt they entirely offer 'the condensation of utility, beauty, meaning and originality into a functional and interesting micro-adventure. '

Without further ado.....

The Sodality buildings are principally of dull brick, partially sunk in the earth. The shape of the complex has been masked by flowerbeds, mounds and dense thickets. Thin chimneys and skylights are set into the buildings. Glazed tiles cover many of the surfaces. 

Aviscaputs, the bird-headed are neither unknown nor common to the local area.

A1 An entrance hall, with hatstands, fire-place and a long sideboard covered in crockery (some of it quite valuable). Two screens isolate one corner of the room.

Monedulus Alleline, a man with the head of a jackdaw, paces nervously.. If surprised he will jump. He may be reciting prayers. He will give a cold welcome to newcomers.

He is deeply worried about the coming rites, and dreads Vansittart's proposed alterations.

The kestrel-headed Raptora Uexkull waits behind the screens. She is very calm and will remain very calm, because she is pointing two flintlock pistols at you. (These are weapons of her own making, and have curving talons on the butts). She refers to Monedulus as 'Little Clerk' with exaggerated contempt. 

Her aim is to get you to surrender your weapons, and go to meet Tietjens to decide what to do with you.

A2 The kitchen. A comfortable, warm room with a large gilt samovar providing tea.

The wren-headed Iolanthe Wrenfield is trying to play cribbage with Patrick Hooke. This is not going well; Hooke is intimidated by her beak and is distracted by thoughts of his lover, Brand.

Iolanthe is trying to distract Hooke, and make his stay all the happier. She will offer newcomers black tea laced with rum, and offer spritely conversation.

Patrick Hooke is a strung-out man who has suffered a wreck on the river. Tietjens has decided that he cannot leave the Sodality until the week is out, as part of the ritual. He cannot play cards.

A3 A wood panelled room, with several large desks; numerous books lie about the room in careful piles.

Hoopoe Tietjens stands at a lectern; piles of paper surround him. The several pillars are studded with long paper strands - invocation, notes, more. Lanner Coningsby is probably lounging somewhere nearby.

Hoopoe Tietjens had the head of a Hoopoe; everyone else is in awe of his crest and long beak. He is the master of the Sodality and will insist on you staying on for the rites (he is reluctant to use force, but may do so all the same). He will offer you tawny port and thin biscuits, and ask searching questions. 

Tietjens is worried by the conduct of Vansittart but has a number of issues that concern him to attend to before then. In his lectern are a number of rare scrolls  - these are magical and spiritual dialogues, of startling interest. He carries a long hunting dagger. 

Lanner Coningsby contrasts a practiced languidness with the sharp eyes of a falcon. He is tending to an incense-burner and will chime in with the odd bon mot in response to Tietjens or anyone else who comes in.

A4 A reception room with several ornate chairs; an iron balcony overlooking the river. The tiles in the room depict the life of a female saint, culminating in her death in a marketplace.

St John Goldfinch is here, apparently talking to Clemency Yaffle. She is watching him carefully, whilst pretending to read.

St John Goldfinch has the head of a goldfinch, and is perpetually trying to groom himself. He is remarking upon the folly of casting the lots to arrange the rites. 

Clemency Yaffle dislikes Goldfinch. She is headed like a green woodpecker and carries a fowling-piece in a duffel-bag.

B1 A sandy cove, with the remains of a boat.

Evelyn Brand is a young woman who was wrecked here with Hooke. Her ankle was badly twisted, and he went in search of help a day ago. She has lit a small fire and survived on river water and smoked eel fillets. She has hidden as best she can from the Sodality.

Brand is trying to distract herself with a book of metaphysical poets. She will quote them at the first opportunity. 

B2 The Egret-headed Dalziel sits on the riverbank, apparently sketching in charcoal. He has exaggerated the forms of the bridge between A4 and B3 to rococo hideousness. He does not wish to be interrupted, and can get quite sharp. If pressed overlong, he may attempt a show of force.

B3 Antechamber dotted with stools. The double doors into the grand hall are shut. 

The guilliemot-headed Urgulanilla Guillemot is consuming a platter of marinated herring. She will attempt to draw in newcomers under her (metaphorical wing) asserting her generosity and the folly of Tietjens. She will offer you a glass of thin white wine laced with rowanberry schnapps, and is unwilling to take no for an answer.

Picador Vansittart is a magpie-headed man, apparently attached to a large pink gin. He is engaged in contemplation of an engraving, showing a nobleman of antiquity drinking from a cup shaped like a dragon. 

Vansittart wishes to alter the rites of the Sodality in his own image. He will happily debate the age and antiquity of the Sodality, and the folly of his colleagues. 

B4 Dormitory, divided by screens into two sections. It overlooks the river; two bathing-places have been sculpted from the riverside.

Gymkhana Dabchick sits at a dressing table, apparently contemplating an ivory statue of a hermaphroditic faun. She will happily tell your where she found it, and some of the cultural connotations of the coitusgeist. 

Hilarion Ptarmigan is dozing in the sunlight by the bathing place. The ptarmigan-headed man will wake if you approach, and ask what time supper is. By him is an empty plate and half a bottle of Madeira, which he will not offer to share.

C1 The great hall has been cleared of furniture: several paintings of mythic  or allegoric scenes remain on the walls. 

C2 Three trapdoors lead out of the great hall into a vestry. Long racks for clothes and storage chests abound. An altar in one corner contains ritual cleansing paraphernalia

C3 A concealed storage room where the furniture of the great hall has been placed. One coffer contains a quantity of silver plate, including a salt-cellar in the shape of a peacock.

The Rite of the Sodality

Over several evenings, the Sodality will conduct their rites. This involves a hymn to the Unknown God, followed by a series of dances and dialogues featuring a cast of distantly allegorical figures.
This begins and concludes in the great hall, but ranges through-out the sodality.

Lamp-lit King    Effects: Ornate lamp, crown, sword.

Movements: wide, deliberate, ornate.       Language and tone: hospitable, semi-liturgical.

Brimstone Cavalier Effects: plumed cap, sabre, pomander.

Movements: Swift, aggressive.     Language and tone: Impassioned, prideful, 

Maid in Red         Effects: Red Kirtle, sistrum.

Movements: poised, fluid.          Language and tone: Courageous, curt, steel-tongued. 

Grandmother of Dragons Effects: Mantle, torch, coin pouch

Movements: Slow, even-paced.    Language and tone: thoughtful, condescending, wheedling.

Brass Councillor Effects: brass-bound staff, fur-trimmed robes

Movements: long strides or absolute stillness.  Language and tone: long-winded, temperate.

Ash Wife      Effects: Pale grey-green cloak, gilt chains.

Movements: choppy, whip-like.       Language and tone: Insinuating, somewhat sing-song.

Reluctant Knave     Effects: Ornate jerkin, axe, dagger, wineskin

Movements: furtive, pained.        Language and tone: Low-pitched, embarrassed

Armed Ploughman         Effects: Pistol, scrip, staff.

Movements: straight lines, head erect.        Language and tone: Platitudinous, sincere.

Velvet Burgher Effects: ruff, sash, tall hat

Movements: distracted, unfocused.        Language and tone: mealy-mouthed soft.

Kindly Death         Effects: White metal circlet, chalice, long cloak.

Movements: twining, unobtrusive.       Language and tone: Deep-voiced, formal, polite.

Wasted Prelate Effects: Amulet, dusty robes, book. 

Movements: small steps, halting.    Language and tone: Thin-voiced, speculative, devotional, sorrowing. 

Messenger Effects: message pouch, whip, horn.

Movements: Swift, direct.           Language and tone: oddly modern, polemic.

Actions during the Rite

Outsiders may witness the Rite, but must remain silent. 

Picador Vansittart and Urgulanilla Guillemot will try to disrupt proceedings by forcing Sodality members out of character. Both may make deliberate mistakes, impertinent remarks or veiled seduction attempts. Minor magics are available to them.

Vansittart has obtained a exotic sabre as part of his costume. He may threaten others with this; he has not yet decided if murder will accomplish his aims. 

Hooke on his own is a target for the disruptors. If Hooke and Brand are united, they will put up a better defence (both afterwards will share a horror of birds). 

Coningsby, Yaffle and Alleline are the most dedicated to the orthodox Rite. 

Yaffle, Uexkull and Dalziel are the most likely to attempt violence as part of the Rite.

A List of Sodality Members

Together with their roles in the Rite, loose personality sketches and bird heads.

1. Hoopoe Tietjens.  [Hoopoe], Lamp-lit King, Generous, Intelligent but Inflexible
2. Picador Vansittart. [Magpie], Brimstone Cavalier, Innovative and Vicious
3. Raptora Uexkull.  [Kestrel], Maid in Red, Vivacious and Bloodthirsty
4. Iolanthe Wrenfield. [Wren], Grandmother of Dragons,  Kind but oblivious
5. Lanner Coningsby. [Lanner falcon], Brass Councillor, Irreverent and sardonic
6. Urgulanilla Guillemot. [Guillemot], Ash-Wife, Hedonistic and commanding
7. St. John Goldfinch. [Goldfinch], Reluctant Knave, Unfocused and arrogant
8. Clemency Yaffle. [Green woodpecker], Armed Ploughman, Dogged and unsubtle
9. Gymkhana Dabchick. [Dabchick], Velvet Burgher, Overfamiliar and earthy
10. Monedulus Alleline. [Jackdaw], Kindly Death, Worrisome perfectionist, loyal
11. Egret Dalziel. [Great white egret],Wasted Prelate, Envious, scrupulous
12. Hilarion Ptarmigan. [Ptarmigan], Messanger, Apathetic, gluttonous

Why are you at the Sodality?

1. A vintner has sent you to them with the matter of an unpaid bill.
2. The carpenter's wife hints darkly to you of their strange goings-on.
3. You know a wizard who will pay for the corpse of an Aviscaput.
4. Pavo Esterhazy has sent you to them with a letter of recommendation.
5. The local priest has asked you to take a message of goodwill.
6. A fisherman has lent out a boat, and it has not yet been returned.

Six Concepts in the Literature of the Rite

1. Repentant silence
2. The imminent and eternal desert
3. The sword in one hand, the trowel in the other
4. A timeless rose
5. Transcendental sight through constant purification
6. The constant note of horror and squalor

Costumes from the 1883 Cambridge Greek Play,
Aristophanes' The Birds.

All images found here.

I will post information on the inspiration for the above if requested in the comments. There is no intended Appendix N for the Sodality. Shouldn't even have posted the bird costumes, but they are good.