Whether treating with half-naked, sun-bronzed indigenes; hacking through steaming jungles; or wading through black water only to have a companion disappear into the jaws of a massive crocodile, the soundtrack is exclusively Exotica...
Showing posts with label Sea of Spices. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sea of Spices. Show all posts
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
The Sea of Spices - Chapter I, Part III
Kasem Somchai dashes through the pyramidal monoliths, both graven with the form of a powerful looking man, with his back to the viewer, wearing an elaborate witch doctor's head-dress and somehow with his arms outstretched holding back a loathsome vague slug-like shape, stumbling onto a black stone platform, a landing, over the edge of the titanic blue-lit pit before him. Almost toppling over the edge, he desperately swings his arms to regain his balance and somehow, through the instinctive reaction to the sudden peril of a calamitous fall, breaks the mesmerism that has overtaken his consciousness and regains his senses, fully lucid.
Looking around he sees a wide basalt staircase plunging from one side of the landing he is standing upon, horribly worn, descending at a steep incline down the side of the pit. His companions catch up and they all stare in awe at the vast glowing void wondering if the other ensorcelled Henchmen had ran heedless off of the platform into the blue abyss before them?
The situation is discussed and the party begins cautiously descending the staircase, alert and clenching bared weaponry. After 2,000 small, tall, steep steps the stairs come to another landing before reversing course in their descend down the sides of the cyclopean shaft. A narrow aperture gapes in the pit-wall adjacent to the landing, with graven forms in the stone on either side, the same powerful witch-doctor as on the monoliths above, but this time facing the viewer and wearing a face-covering cowl that bares fierce eyes and its palms up and out as if holding something back.
As the party discusses whether to further descend gibbered whimpering is heard from withing the dark portal in the shaft-wall. Zusander, with his skills in languages and translation makes out pidgen words for "Please," "Help" and the like. Inquiries are made and the unseen speaker begins begging in Common "Please take me from this bad place; Please protect me from the wicked ones below."
The companions further discuss their options at length before torch-light is cast into the aperture, revealing a short, narrow tunnel with a prone man at the end, clad in orate Ankhor mail with a round-shield bearing the bas-relief of an elephant's head and a sheathed bolo-sword at his waist. Although he had the frizzy hair and almond complexion of the islanders, his eyes and facial features belied Ankhor ancestry.
The man, and adventurers named Nodcal, explains that he and his Sindhu dwarf companion, Sufru, had descended into the pit seeking gold; they found many abandoned strange huts before night fell and several ghostly bad men emerged chanting wicked black juju. Sufru fell under their spell and wast entranced, but as Nodcal fled they brushed him with their fingers and sucked his vitality, draining him of his strength. He was able to ascend this far before collapsing from exhaustion and dragging himself into the alcove.
Nodcal begged the party to descend and rescue Sufru, but the party refuses and instead conveys Nodcal back to their vessel. The journey through the jungle is uneventful, aside from placid orangutans and an arm-sized leech attacking a Henchman, but Nodcal recovers no strength and requires the aid of two men to walk.
The party weighs anchor and sails for the southern village, delivering Nodcal to their witch-doctor; the half-Ankhor adventurer presents them with a purse of 3,000 worn shiny coin-like flattened lumps of gold. Speculations are made regarding what else he had been carrying while helpless and in their power.
The party feasts, rests, and under the pretense of "hunting" begins navigating an indirect route through the jungle for the mist-shrouded middle mountain of the three looming above the jungle inland from the village.
Looking around he sees a wide basalt staircase plunging from one side of the landing he is standing upon, horribly worn, descending at a steep incline down the side of the pit. His companions catch up and they all stare in awe at the vast glowing void wondering if the other ensorcelled Henchmen had ran heedless off of the platform into the blue abyss before them?
The situation is discussed and the party begins cautiously descending the staircase, alert and clenching bared weaponry. After 2,000 small, tall, steep steps the stairs come to another landing before reversing course in their descend down the sides of the cyclopean shaft. A narrow aperture gapes in the pit-wall adjacent to the landing, with graven forms in the stone on either side, the same powerful witch-doctor as on the monoliths above, but this time facing the viewer and wearing a face-covering cowl that bares fierce eyes and its palms up and out as if holding something back.
As the party discusses whether to further descend gibbered whimpering is heard from withing the dark portal in the shaft-wall. Zusander, with his skills in languages and translation makes out pidgen words for "Please," "Help" and the like. Inquiries are made and the unseen speaker begins begging in Common "Please take me from this bad place; Please protect me from the wicked ones below."
The companions further discuss their options at length before torch-light is cast into the aperture, revealing a short, narrow tunnel with a prone man at the end, clad in orate Ankhor mail with a round-shield bearing the bas-relief of an elephant's head and a sheathed bolo-sword at his waist. Although he had the frizzy hair and almond complexion of the islanders, his eyes and facial features belied Ankhor ancestry.
The man, and adventurers named Nodcal, explains that he and his Sindhu dwarf companion, Sufru, had descended into the pit seeking gold; they found many abandoned strange huts before night fell and several ghostly bad men emerged chanting wicked black juju. Sufru fell under their spell and wast entranced, but as Nodcal fled they brushed him with their fingers and sucked his vitality, draining him of his strength. He was able to ascend this far before collapsing from exhaustion and dragging himself into the alcove.
Nodcal begged the party to descend and rescue Sufru, but the party refuses and instead conveys Nodcal back to their vessel. The journey through the jungle is uneventful, aside from placid orangutans and an arm-sized leech attacking a Henchman, but Nodcal recovers no strength and requires the aid of two men to walk.
The party weighs anchor and sails for the southern village, delivering Nodcal to their witch-doctor; the half-Ankhor adventurer presents them with a purse of 3,000 worn shiny coin-like flattened lumps of gold. Speculations are made regarding what else he had been carrying while helpless and in their power.
The party feasts, rests, and under the pretense of "hunting" begins navigating an indirect route through the jungle for the mist-shrouded middle mountain of the three looming above the jungle inland from the village.
Monday, March 14, 2011
The Sea of Spices - Chapter I, Part II
The party returns to the Salty Voyager and settles their nerves after the shocking jungle episode. The next morning they return to the pond carrying a rowboat from their xebec. They use a complicated scheme to ferry all of the adventurers and retinue to the pile of crumbled black ruined stones in the center of Nushnos' death lake.
The islet is searched, and although Amarath the Scholar ascertains that it is indeed the ancient remains of some ruin that they are standing on, no entrances, passages, chambers, shafts or treasures are found. Zusander strips to his scimitar and dagger and dives several times to the bottom of the pond, but also discovers naught; the party returns to their vessel and rests another night.
The next morning they set out for the mountain rising above the jungle; for two days they slash and tread and sweat and drudge through the thick undergrowth and choking lianas, encountering naught but occasional placid family groups of orangutans. By the evening of the second day they have reached the rocky base of the vegetation encrusted mount and while searching for a campsite they discover an ancient road of worn black stones in the jungle, heading directly for the mountain. There are intermittent piles of crumbled basalt slabs alongside the road which the Scholar Amarath identifies as the vastly ancient remains of buildings.
As twilight sets in the party makes camp alongside the black road but are disturbed by the sudden sussurus of ghostly chanting whispers coming from the mountain above accompanied by a vast vertical shaft of shimmering blue light thrusting up into the night sky from a spot on the lower reaches of the mountain, with the road pointing directly at this ghastly illumination.
The Physician Asem Somchai, the Fighting-Man Ulnoc, and the Henchmen Hanamandu, Modibi, Sabmon and Fulompha begin running down the road towards the blue shaft of light upon the mountain, ignoring the calls of their companions. Zusander grabs Mobidi's arm and tries to overpower her but after she begins pummeling him he lets her twist out of his grasp and rush after the others.
The party attempts to chase their apparently mesmerized compatriots, but all of the ensorcelled dashers aside for the mail-clad Asem Somchai are able to outpace the party. Fearing further violence if they physically interfere with the Physician they instead follow him.
An hour later Ulnoc comes to his senses while dashing down the dark road leading steeply up the mountainside; he attempts to stops Fulompha but she soundly ignores him so he instead turns around and begins jogging down the slope, soon coming across the Ankhor Physician followed by the rest of the un-mesmerized adventurers and Henchmen.
The party continues following Asem as he dashes up the steep mountain road, and an hour later they come upon the source of the massive shaft of blue ghost light; upon a small ledge or plateau in the lower reaches of the mountain, the ancient road leading up to it, is a vast circular pit, from which the beam of light emerges. Two monoliths, resembling vertically elongated pyramids, stand close together where the road intersects the pit, one of each side of the terminus of the paves, with Doctor Asem Somchai dashing straight towards the point between these two markers...
The islet is searched, and although Amarath the Scholar ascertains that it is indeed the ancient remains of some ruin that they are standing on, no entrances, passages, chambers, shafts or treasures are found. Zusander strips to his scimitar and dagger and dives several times to the bottom of the pond, but also discovers naught; the party returns to their vessel and rests another night.
The next morning they set out for the mountain rising above the jungle; for two days they slash and tread and sweat and drudge through the thick undergrowth and choking lianas, encountering naught but occasional placid family groups of orangutans. By the evening of the second day they have reached the rocky base of the vegetation encrusted mount and while searching for a campsite they discover an ancient road of worn black stones in the jungle, heading directly for the mountain. There are intermittent piles of crumbled basalt slabs alongside the road which the Scholar Amarath identifies as the vastly ancient remains of buildings.
As twilight sets in the party makes camp alongside the black road but are disturbed by the sudden sussurus of ghostly chanting whispers coming from the mountain above accompanied by a vast vertical shaft of shimmering blue light thrusting up into the night sky from a spot on the lower reaches of the mountain, with the road pointing directly at this ghastly illumination.
The Physician Asem Somchai, the Fighting-Man Ulnoc, and the Henchmen Hanamandu, Modibi, Sabmon and Fulompha begin running down the road towards the blue shaft of light upon the mountain, ignoring the calls of their companions. Zusander grabs Mobidi's arm and tries to overpower her but after she begins pummeling him he lets her twist out of his grasp and rush after the others.
The party attempts to chase their apparently mesmerized compatriots, but all of the ensorcelled dashers aside for the mail-clad Asem Somchai are able to outpace the party. Fearing further violence if they physically interfere with the Physician they instead follow him.
An hour later Ulnoc comes to his senses while dashing down the dark road leading steeply up the mountainside; he attempts to stops Fulompha but she soundly ignores him so he instead turns around and begins jogging down the slope, soon coming across the Ankhor Physician followed by the rest of the un-mesmerized adventurers and Henchmen.
The party continues following Asem as he dashes up the steep mountain road, and an hour later they come upon the source of the massive shaft of blue ghost light; upon a small ledge or plateau in the lower reaches of the mountain, the ancient road leading up to it, is a vast circular pit, from which the beam of light emerges. Two monoliths, resembling vertically elongated pyramids, stand close together where the road intersects the pit, one of each side of the terminus of the paves, with Doctor Asem Somchai dashing straight towards the point between these two markers...
Sunday, March 13, 2011
The Sea of Spices - Chapter I, Part I
The Cast:
Amaranth, Kumarikantam Magic-User and Scholar
Doctor Kasem Somchai, Ankhor Cleric and Physician
Nushno, Sindhu Fighting-Man, Step-Brother to Zusander, and his henchmen:
- Sabmon (Cleric), Fulompha (Sorceress), Euvero (Fighting-Man) and Ulnoc (Fighting-Man)
Zusander the Tiger, Sindhu Fighting-Man, Step-Brother to Nushnos, and his henchmen:
- Clodius (Iskander Fighting-Man), Faruza (Sindhu Fighting-Woman), Hanamandu (Kumarikantam Fighting-Man) and Modibi (Sindhu Priestess)
&
The Salty Voyager, Sindhu Xebec
Nushno and Zusander, step-brothers that hated each other, shared an adventurer-uncle, Abheems, who told them tale, of a mist shrouded mountain, the middle of three, looming above Snake Island, west of Dread Island and north of the port-island of Amphorae in the Sea of Spices. This uncle spoke of tales and maps and of the treasure horde of an ancient lost empire sequestered within a hidden temple upon said mist-shrouded mountain before setting out on a expedition to recover these treasures.
Uncle Abheems was never heard from again.
The the intervening years the brother grew to despise each other further, while emulating their uncle by pursuing lives of wandering adventure. Nushno gained a second enemy to his step-brother when both he and a Kumarikantam Scholar-Sorcerer pursued the same woman, only for both to earn her scorn for their competitive efforts.
This Scholar was Amarath, an adventuring companion of the Ankhor Physician-Priest Kasem Somchai, the two of whom has been inseparable companions since they saved each others lives on a disastrous expedition where the rest of their companions expired.
Before the aforementioned expedition, Doctor Kasem Somchai has served a term of hard labour in the gaols of a cruel Vizir with Zusander the Tiger, where the two of them banded together for mutual advantage.
Years later the two rival step-brothers grudgingly decide to work together and go after their missing uncle and the treasure horde he was seeking. Zusander brings along past ally and cleric Kasem Somchai and the Sage-Sorcerer Amarath to bolster the party, and Nushno is dismayed to see that the "help" that his step-brother has obtained includes a former romantic rival.
The party pools their resources, the step-brother gather their henchmen, and they all commission an adventurer-captain and lease a xebec before thrusting out into the vast reaches of the Ouroboric Oceans into a harrowing journey to the Sea of Spices.
Much later the vessel floats alongside the western coast of a large jungle isle, according to their navigation Snake Island. Four mountains thrust out of the lush greenery, one to the north, and three closely clustered together to the south, the middle of which is shrouded with thick gray clouds. In the initial scout of the coast two hut-villages are spotted, one below each two mountainous regions, with a distance of 50 miles separating the villages along the coast.
The party sails into the harbor of the southern village; the villagers are friendly and their chief greets the xebec from a dugout catamaran, making welcomes and inquiries of cargo. Zusuander makes of gift of a vial of perfume which impresses the chieftan greatly, other sundries are gifted, and the party is feted with roast pig, fruit, arrack, and gracious hospitality. They notice that the boulders scattered about the village appear to be the remains of ancient architecture, and that the harbour, apparently natural, seems to be artificial albeit of extreme antiquity.
The next day the party speaks with the cheiftan and witch-doctor, and when inquiries are made of the mist-shrouded mountain they are informed that it is taboo and forbidden. The party sets sail for the northern village, consisting of grass huts on wooden platforms and barges of reed-bundles, and again gifts of "cargo" are made, this time a block of incense impressing the chieftan. The people of this village wear many pieces of rude gold jewelry, which piques the parties interest.
They inquire of the mountain looming above this village and learn that long ago a wicked tribe lived in a village inside the mountain and performed black magic upon and enslaved the people of the island. Eventually the mighty sons of gods saw fit to stop this tribe, and punished them for their wickedness and imprisoned them within their mountain.
Nowadays people stay away from that mountain, and those that hunt too close to it often disappear. The party agrees that is seems wise to stay away from the mountain and asks about the gold jewelry. They are told that the jungle is full of the weathered rubble of ancient ruins, and that sometimes hunters find trinkets or amphorae under rocks or within the burrows of capybaras; after many years the tribe has accumulated many trinkets. It is said this gold comes from when the wicked tribe of the mountain was struck down, the jewels of those that were slain in the jungles.
The next day the party sails north-east along the coastline for a few hours to a spot north of and close to the mountain and anchored in a sheltered harbour. The party decides to search the jungle for a few hours and seek out some of this gold. After an hour they stumble upon a small group of orangutans, who placidly munch on forage while watching the party. The party continues searching the jungle and in the darkness beneath the jungle canopy, among the singing, chattering and screeching of birds, monkeys and insects, sweltering in torrid humidity, they find a stagnant black pool with a tumbled pile of black rocks resembling the shattered stone ruins of a small step-pyramid squatting in the center of the pool amidst the poison-green floating vegetation, only a few shafts of sunlight piercing the canopy above to illuminate a few slime-encrusted boulders among the rotting edge of the islet.
The party discusses investigating this ruined pile for gold; the Sindhu step-brothers Zusander and Nushno are both trained and skilled swimmers and divers, and the two resolve to see if they can wade to the islet. The cautiously step into the waters, the much sucking at their feet; at about a third of the way to the black rocks, about thirty feet from the shore, the waters reach above their waist. There is a sudden explosion of white foaming water and blackened green scales; a massive crocodile lunges out from the deeper waters, grabs Nushno within its jaws, and disappears beneath the suddenly blood-slicked and still waters.
There is a shocked silence as the birds, monkeys and insects still their cacophony before Zusander begins slashing with his scimitar through the murky waters, but to no satisfaction.
He staggers out of the slimy pond to rejoin his stunned companions; Nushnos' former flunkies discuss their situation, and at the urgings of the Sorceress Fulompha, Ulnoc is nominated as the new leader of this particular knot of henchmen. Meanwhile the rest of the party speculate on how suspicious this tale will sound to the family of the rival step-brothers, "Nusho went on a sea voyage with a former romantic rival, his hated step-brother, and someone that his step-brother met in prison; they go into the jungle and than he gets killed by a crocodile that disappears with his body..."
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Sea of Spices - Location Influences Brainstorming
The Boats of the Glen Carrig Weed-Continent/Mini-R'lyeh
Mini Dreamtime Australia
Skull Island/Dino Island
Submerged Air-filled Dome City
Drowned City Ruins - visible from surface
Interzone
The Nameless City
A Black Ziggurat
Gigantic Jungle Cave System
Sorcerer's Tower
Ape Civilization
Scylla
Sea monster graveyard
Monstro - Giant whale that swallows vessels whole a la Pinocchio
Sinbad islands
Necromancer civilization
Miniature cyclops civilization island
Man eating homo floresiensis island
Ridiculously Tall Mountain/Volcano Island (possible landmark for navigation?)
Ancient Faux-Spaniard Ruins (although I originally imagined the Sea of Spices of being pre-Age of Exploration, it struck me to "invert time/history" with the Spaniard-analogue civilization, long since vanished from the world, having attempted to colonize the region in the far distant past)
Mini Dreamtime Australia
Skull Island/Dino Island
Submerged Air-filled Dome City
Drowned City Ruins - visible from surface
Interzone
The Nameless City
A Black Ziggurat
Gigantic Jungle Cave System
Sorcerer's Tower
Ape Civilization
Scylla
Sea monster graveyard
Monstro - Giant whale that swallows vessels whole a la Pinocchio
Sinbad islands
Necromancer civilization
Miniature cyclops civilization island
Man eating homo floresiensis island
Ridiculously Tall Mountain/Volcano Island (possible landmark for navigation?)
Ancient Faux-Spaniard Ruins (although I originally imagined the Sea of Spices of being pre-Age of Exploration, it struck me to "invert time/history" with the Spaniard-analogue civilization, long since vanished from the world, having attempted to colonize the region in the far distant past)
Monday, February 7, 2011
Further OSR Adventure Path Brainstorming - The Sea of Spices & Napalm Death on Children's Programme
Influences:
Abraham Merritt
Age Of Fable
Barbary Corsairs
Cargo Cults
Clark Ashton Smith
Dream Park
The Dream Quest Of Unknown Kadath
Headhunting
Jack Vance
Kumari Kandam
Lemuria
Mu
Nidus !!! (funny how things come full circle..Ouroboros!)
The Odyssey
Orientalism !!!
Polynesia
Pre-Spanish Philippines
Sinbad the Sailor
Skull Island
Southeast Asia
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
You could use the same setting and materials for three very different experiences...you could run multiple parties through the different "paths" (or on the same path for some competition!) for a dynamic campaign experience.
Anyways, so The Sea of Spices is the location of this thought experiment; as I'm directly referencing many elements of our world's cultures in this, that means I get to use the classic rpg standby of "ham-handed interpretations of real life historical cultures with their serial numbers filed off."
I imagine the Sea of Spices being well-isolated from the continental landmasses; interlopers from these far away regions may be bold explorers, colonial powers, or merely those blown of course/very very lost. From my list of influences the following "faux-cultures" emerge as being non-indigenous people, with all of them being filtered through an inaccurate, Orientalist lens:
Faux-Ancient Greeks - WASP-ish dudes with British accents in fancy bronze armor that act like classical Greek heroes & philosophers.
Faux-Arab/Berbers - Dudes that wear giant turbans and eyeliner; upper class & sorcerer types have British accents.
Faux-Dravidians - Hindu mythological epic style warlords and priests.
Faux-Southeast Asian Types - Dudes with Ankhor Wat style architecture that ride elephants into war
I like this mix...four different cultural groups, four languages, a nice mix of ethnicities to keep things from being too whitebread. Now I need to come up with names for these peoples/cultures. (Iskanders, Sindhus, Kumarikantams & Ankhors?)
Also, this is PRETTY FREAKING AWESOME:
Abraham Merritt
Age Of Fable
Barbary Corsairs
Cargo Cults
Clark Ashton Smith
Dream Park
The Dream Quest Of Unknown Kadath
Headhunting
Jack Vance
Kumari Kandam
Lemuria
Mu
Nidus !!! (funny how things come full circle..Ouroboros!)
The Odyssey
Orientalism !!!
Polynesia
Pre-Spanish Philippines
Sinbad the Sailor
Skull Island
Southeast Asia
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
"The "Sea of Spices" may be considered a misnomer, as in actuality it consists of an uncounted legion of islands and islets, the remains of a submerged mountainous continent, in the cyclone lashed midst of the tropical region of the great ocean, isolated from the other continents of the world; legendary for its wealth in spices, fragrant gums, narcotics, feathers, furs, gems and precious metals."One though I've come up with in regards to a theorhetical OSR adventure path is that there could be multiple "paths"; you have the pulp fantasy, greed motivated Treasure Hunt; but you could also incorporate a "Save The Heir/Princess" as alternate or additional "path," one that could appeal to altruistic or roleplay motivations ("Dude...I'm going to make that princess fall in love with me!); and a third "evil" path such as "Summon mini-Cthulhu to serve the party as an empire building war beast."
You could use the same setting and materials for three very different experiences...you could run multiple parties through the different "paths" (or on the same path for some competition!) for a dynamic campaign experience.
Anyways, so The Sea of Spices is the location of this thought experiment; as I'm directly referencing many elements of our world's cultures in this, that means I get to use the classic rpg standby of "ham-handed interpretations of real life historical cultures with their serial numbers filed off."
I imagine the Sea of Spices being well-isolated from the continental landmasses; interlopers from these far away regions may be bold explorers, colonial powers, or merely those blown of course/very very lost. From my list of influences the following "faux-cultures" emerge as being non-indigenous people, with all of them being filtered through an inaccurate, Orientalist lens:
Faux-Ancient Greeks - WASP-ish dudes with British accents in fancy bronze armor that act like classical Greek heroes & philosophers.
Faux-Arab/Berbers - Dudes that wear giant turbans and eyeliner; upper class & sorcerer types have British accents.
Faux-Dravidians - Hindu mythological epic style warlords and priests.
Faux-Southeast Asian Types - Dudes with Ankhor Wat style architecture that ride elephants into war
I like this mix...four different cultural groups, four languages, a nice mix of ethnicities to keep things from being too whitebread. Now I need to come up with names for these peoples/cultures. (Iskanders, Sindhus, Kumarikantams & Ankhors?)
Also, this is PRETTY FREAKING AWESOME:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
