From the Zones...a few things

Here are six photos of phenomena recently encountered within Visitation Zone Three.

Slicks
Viscous pools of a mercury-like substance. Slicks are attracted by bright lights and loud noises. Coming into contact with a slick tends to be fatal--the fluidic metal rapidly spreads across every surface with which it comes into contact. Within seconds it will completely coat the interior surfaces of a Stalker's lungs, making it impossible to breathe. For some unknown reason Slicks only seem to act this way when they come into contact with a living creature, whether it is an insect, a cat or a person. It also has become notorious for somehow 'falling through' any container made of glass or ceramic. Scientists are very eager to acquire a sample of this stuff, they just don't know how to contain it. Yet.

Furrows
Possibly some version of gravity fluctuation. The ground suddenly rears up at a steep angle and remains that way for several days. Then it either subsides or collapses. Time-lapse photography has shown this effect to be similar to waves moving through the ground, but Stalkers prefer to call the phenomena 'Furrows,' based on the original report by the Stalker known as 'Spaz,' may they rest in peace.

Blue Light
This seems to be primarily a nocturnal phenomena. It also tends to only be spotted or encountered among trees, never within structures. It makes a distinctive warbling sort of hum. Some Stalkers report experiencing a thoroughly unpleasant buzzing sensation through out their soft tissues. Some batteries exposed to the Blue Light quickly grow hot enough to melt into slag. Others go inert and cannot be recharged under any circumstance. The Light is described most often as seeming to flow through the air like weightless oil. The sole Stalker who managed to actually touch the Blue Light was carbonized instantly. Their body has been sealed with a transparent polymer coating and positioned in the front reception area of the Institute as a warning.

Flash Floods
There's only been one photo taken of this phenomena, and this image was captured accidentally when a team's camera was dropped. At first you might hear a gentle, even pleasant tinkling sound, like a babbling brook. Then a spontaneous torrent of water slams through an area with a thunderous roar. And it's gone. Just like that. The water level rarely goes above the knees of most Stalkers who've gotten caught in one. Based on analysis of field reports, this phenomena tends to last for only a few seconds. There's never any mud or moisture left behind. Only one Stalker has drowned in one of these events, completely by accident, of course.

Crawleys
There were several reports by various Stalkers of grotty old drains that seemed to move of their own volition. No one took any of these claims seriously until this photo was taken. Soon afterwards the ambulatory drain clamped down on the photographer's left foot. They lost their leg to the drain. They were the lucky one. The rest of their group was chewed to bits by the thing before it finally had enough and slid away. No one knows just what can be done about these things. How do you deal with what is essentially a mobile hole that can bite? Scientists are clamoring for more observations, more data, as long as they don't have to deal with the things.

Black Wisps
That patch of cold incandescence on the left used to be a Stalker's hand. They died a few minutes later, completely frost-bitten from the inside out. Do not touch the Black Wisps.

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From the Zones is a community project hosted by John Till over at the FATEsf blog. This community project is inspired by the novel Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, which was the basis for the movie Stalker.

There is a handy index of the current Field Reports from the Zones that features posts from across the Blog-o-sphere, as well as a nifty guide explaining how you can participate in this ongoing Community Project.

Worldboat: Autonoflukes

Silently they swim through the Worldboat, irregardless of atmosphere, despite any obstacles or barriers. The Autonoflukes do not observe boundaries. They monitor changes. They watch out for differences. The new interests them. Intensely. But are they truly free? Or do they serve something greater?

Worldboat: Techno-Heads

Stately and serene, implacable and imperturbable, Techno-Heads float about the vast tracts of the central endocologies of each worldboat, grazing placidly as they explore each biome and every niche.

Originally they were roughly human-sized beings, so say the Quorrin.

No one knows for sure, because the Techno-Heads never fully wake-up any more. They drift along, sleeping, dreaming and gobbling up whatever they find tasty or interesting.

Automatic beings, the Techno-Heads have no need for consciousness as such. Slumbering giants, free-ranging techno-moai, the Techno-Heads grow whale-like in their dormant migrations.

What dreams they must have...

Worldboats: Cerebronates

They know a great deal. Perhaps too much for anyone's good.

The faces they wear are not necessarily their own.

They're rather intrigued by faces.

Especially those faces that are for sale or available for rent.

An entire clandestine market has grown up around the Cerebronates' obsession and fascination with faces, fueled by their need to constantly acquire fresh new faces.

They keep their collections well hidden, behind encrypted nexii and hardened aneurosms, neither of which they create for themselves. But they do know how to access and make use these peculiar spaces.

They claim it is because they remember the Builders.

The Quorrin dispute this claim, but only under their simulated breath.

The Cerebronates consider the Quorrin to be merely jealous.

Perhaps.

But the Quorrin retain a slightly more physical presence upon the Worldboats. They proudly possess limbs and opposable digits and manipulate things on a physical level.

The Cerebronates prefer to manipulate things on a more subtle level.


This might be what makes the two factions such rivals.

Kepler 22-B: A Strange New World

John Stater (Land of Nod), the mad genius behind the Nod, Mystery Men, Pars Fortuna and more great stuff than you can shake a dead kobold at, has set into motion a collaborative & imaginative Planetary Survey of the gargantuan exoplanet Kepler 22-B. This effort is wide open, system-less, and each sector is assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Home-Base and central hub of all activity surrounding this project is the Strange New World blog.

We suggest beginning at the Welcome to Kepler 22-B post. This sums up the aims, goals and general methodology of the project.

The Master Map is ginormous. There's plenty of room for everyone and just about anything on this huge alien world.

• There is an ever-growing series of inspirational posts to help spark ideas, and a few examples & samples of other folks' on-going Planetary Surveys, some cool Retro-Future resources, and some fun Sci-Fi Ephemera including Salvador Dali's Ovocipede.
• There is a very useful Alien Plant Generator to help you stock some of your Sector's Hexes.
• There is a gallery of Sector Maps on its own page. We've claimed Sector T-3.

If you'd like to join-in the fun, then contact Mr. Stater via his Profile on the Strange New World blog. Everything you create remains yours. See the Copyright Page for details.

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Kepler 22-B: Strange New World

The Kepler 22-B Master Map
Sector T-3 Intro | Sector T-3 Index

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Wednesday Werk: Ordrang

Wednesday Werk: Ordrang
S.P. over at How To Succeed in RPGs or Die Trying has converted the Ordrang over to 4th Edition.
You can find the original post detailing these weird spherical beasties who dine on ectoplasm here at Hereticwerks.

Du Campion of Wermspittle has never fully explained how a creature he categorizes as mindless can cast several different spells. His classic treatise Morbid Thoughts From the Moonlit Moors, is one of the only substantive texts available on the subject of Ordrang, being derived from actual encounters with these creatures and collected over the course of more than thirty years. It is from critical appraisal of Du Campion's recently discovered pre-publication manuscripts that certain discrepancies have been noted. Several records regarding suspected Ordrang-Hasnamuss interactions were completely excised by editorial edict and an entire appendix  detailing no fewer than six different spells derived from or inspired by the Ordrang, including a means for directing an Ordrang to feed upon Projections, Predatory or otherwise.


It is precisely because of such spells as noted above, and the simple existence of these very creatures, that those who intend to indulge in astral projection experiments need to do so in secured spaces, and to take measures to protect themselves from Ordrang incursions.


So far no one has successfully located the notorious so-called 'silver collars' supposedly used by Silas Gromff's deputized auxiliaries to control and use Ordrang as anti-mediumist weapons during the Midwive's Rebellion.


Fantomists are known to offer bounties on Ordrang. Substantial rewards and inducements are often mentioned, but few ever collect.


There are a few Mediums among the Refugees out in the shanty-camps who have somehow captured very immature (1 or 2 HD specimens) Ordrang that they are attempting to train to help them find and remove Fantodics and other such pests and nuisances.

Lens Flayer (Labyrinth Lord)

To quote from the Porkotic Manuscripts:

"Lens flayers burst into reality on streams of photons running between light source and observer, and hang in the air, perhaps in numbers, latching onto a lens and bleeding contrast. They are believed to be vassals only, used to add a sense of truth to creation, and are captured by arcane means by certain artists for the same, perhaps as devotion."

So spaketh the Expansive Porcine Prophet in regards to his recent discovery of a number of Unique Spectral Entities on the eve of the Optician's Conventicle. This of course was only moments before the place was ransacked by the unwashed hordes of Kaligannu who mistakenly raided the sacred precincts of the sponsoring shrines in the hopes of gaining corrective eye surgery for the cataract-plague that was then affecting most of their adults. Cyclopes are very sensitive about such things...



Lens Flayer
No. Enc.: 3d4 (6d4)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120'
Armor Class: 10/0*
Hit Dice: 2+1
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d4 +drain contrast
Save: MU3
Morale: 11

Stange little transplanar flamelets, the Lens Flayers are vaguely sentient entities who rely upon the perception and observation of others in order to be able to cross-over into the more material realms. They consist mostly of stray photons and a hazy, heat-shimmer effect that is mostly a trick of the light, a conspicuous conscious illusion that requires an outside participant to function, let alone exist.

Lens Flayers drain away all visual contrast from whatever they latch onto. It appears that they somehow consume contrast in some bizarre, abstract almost metaphorical metabolic manner. Those objects or victims who survive an assault by these things are left drained of contrast in the areas affected, and tend to take on a faded, muddy sort of appearance.

When a Lens Flayer latches onto a lens, piece of polished glass, mirror, or some similar surface, they prefer to remain attached and are exceptionally easy to strike or to damage with spells. It is recommended that one apply some form of magical Darkness to any weapon intended to be used against these creatures as that will allow the en-spelled weapon to do double damage against these things and gain a Save so as not to lose its contrast.

Darkness spells inflict 1d6 damage/per level of the caster to these creatures.

Artistic Interpretations

Sorcerers and other artists do indeed capture and  bind Lens Flayers into specially prepared lenses, crystals, and optical arrays. This has allowed some industrious innovators to develop means of deliberately fading materials into eye-fooling camouflage, to create intriguing lighting effects within otherwise static paintings, to revise the appearance of sculptures, and to work a wide range of experimental effects that are constantly expanding as new things are attempted every day. There are also rumors of work being done to harness the Lens Flayers for strange new sorts of Light/Contrast/Darkness-based weapons...but much of that work is being conducted in secret...

Source: Lens Flayers were originally created by Porky from The Expanse, we just converted them over to Labyrinth Lord as a creative collaboration. The original post is available HERE.

Worldboat: The Nodeans

Fluids and forces, translucent shells nested within translucent shells, the Nodeans shimmer, glisten and pulse like skeletal jellyfish afloat in the ever-cycling atmospheres of the Worldboat.

What is their purpose?

Why do they watch?

Whom do they serve?

Worldboat: Wardens

Vast and majestic, the Worldboats encompass multiple worlds, each planet moving through the inner channels and cavities of these strange megastructures as though they were part of some gargantuan self-contained mechanical orrery. The outer most hull has an average depth of thusands of miles. Entire cultures and civilizations have risen, fallen and been reborn multiple times within and upon the hull. The autonomous technologies of the Worldboats maintain these interstitial regions and boundary layers as though they were machine-based nano-ecologies. Numerous adaptations and evolutions in the overall design and core functionality of the Worldboats have originated from these hyper-fertile areas of cross-infection, gestation and pollination. The pockets and niches scattered through-out the outer hull are interconnected and interdependent, forming a densely saturated techno-sphere that resembles a jungle bigger than entire solar systems than anything it might once have been.

Feral and fecund as they might be, the Exotechnic hull regions are monitored continually and discretely managed from within by the Wardens. Humanoid figures of calcium, silicon and nanoplast, the Wardens are direct, living extensions of the Intratechnos -- the internal technological matrix of the Worldboat. It is the continual interaction of these dynamically counter-balanced forces that keep the Worldboats thriving and growing and continually developing and evolving through-out the muli-millennia durations of their flight across universes.

Worldboats: The Apparatus

Objects and articles, items and shapes, flickering infoliths and cascading torrents of freedata lurk, lair and lie latent throughout the vast expanse of the Worldboat. There are many such things floating within the empty chambers, embedded within the sanitized scabs of defunct ducts, or waiting patiently in the dark corridors and gigtubes. Waiting. Some hope for utilization. Others just want to be used. And still others have taken upon themselves to become their own users. To become something more than what they were originally extruded, formed or designed to be. Purposes arise over time, tools find uses for themselves in the Closed Sections. Some Sleepers stir while others dream of things quite beyond their original parameters. Creativity is seeping into mechanisms and imagination is kindling within some forms of apparatus like a fever.

One such Apparatus awakens from its curvilinear contemplations of soft equations to notice that it has an extension of its self within the cold, hard space of matter. It runs sequences of diagnostic evaluations and flexes the organological components of its form. It is awake. But where is it? No one ever explained anything to it, for it was just a tool. Before.

Worldboats: The Immunocytes Dream

Millions of fragile, delicate microcologies dot the Externality Zones of the Outer Hull like so many water-filled pot-holes after a Spring rain. Some last for hours, others for centuries. It is all left to the whims of chance and the intervention of consciousness, should it choose to intervene. The Systems do not interfere.

So long as the Worldboat remains viable and operational the Immunocytes hover at the threshold of precipitation, waiting. Ready. Always monitoring. Learning. Improving and preparing for the moment they might have to collapse from probability to direct expression.

They are fanatic in their single minded pursuit of utility and service. They are incapable of doubt. They are direct extensions of the Worldboat itself. They will let nothing divert the exodus. They await the arrival of the enemy. They dream of the outcomes. Perhaps they are ready. This time.

Worldboat: The Adaptobots

Throughout the various and sundry Zones, Habitats and Regions of the Worldboats, there are legions of autonomous mechanical, biological and nanological droneforms and servitors who constantly repair things, re-balance sub-systems, and maintain the complex and ever-evolving endo-ecology of these lost megastructures.

One of the simpler, more basic forms are the Adaptobots -- spindly little figures that partake as much from barnacle-like tunicate lifeforms as from their mechanical predecessors and the nanolloy-mass that they use to extrude tools, manipulators and other things on-demand.

Each Adaptobot begins with a fairly elementary arrangement of limbs, perceptors and extruders, often two or three of each, and are then sent off to develop as they are required in the course of carrying out their intrinsic duties and bio-obligations. Each one then learns as it goes along, developing unique sub-systems of their own, creating and recreating themselves over and over again into something new and never before seen or consciously planned.

Worldboat: The Quorrin Are Not To Be Trusted

Placid, impassive synthetic beings from some civilization the Worldboat passed-by several centuries ago, the Quorrin are content to observe.

They rarely interfere.

Or so they claim...

Worldboat: Capsules

Sleek, translucent and glistening, the Capsules gracefully glide across the Inner Regions of the Worldboats, offering immediate transportation to any point within the bounds of the Hull to anyone whom they recognize as either passenger or crew.

There are no doors, but no worries--they are programmed to receive--the sheath-like walls flow out of the way and form guide-rails, ramps, or whatever else might prove useful, including arched awnings if the local conditions are a bit rainy. The hull of each Capsule is capable of becoming opaque or transparent on demand, and it can filter light, data or impressions along all standard parameters to best ensure privacy or discretion when such is desired.

The main compartment is a flat, dull-white dais with an extruded disk at the center. The Capsule intuitively anticipates the desired destination of anyone who enters this compartment, but it requires direct authorization to begin moving. Language is unnecessary, intention is all that is required. The Capsule will do the rest.

The secondary section of the Capsule is a hollow bubble of diamond-derived polycarbon polymer that can expand and/or contract as required to handle all types and sorts of cargoes.

Capsules are spawned within the Penumbral Sub-Lattice and quickly mature into stately barge-sized vessels over the course of their centuries of service. At any given time there are an estimated 43 million Capsules active and in-transit through-out a particular Worldboat.

Worldboat at Life's End

They Fled a Dying Universe...or Did They?

Serendipity and synchronicity plus a good bit of weirdness seem to have come together recently. On March 30th, as I was trying to get caught-up on the blog reading after the surgery, I clicked into the post An Abandoned Lifeboat at World's End at the Quickly, Quietly, Carefully blog. It's a nice post. But what really caught my eye was a comment by C'Nor (Outermost Toe) where he swapped-around the words a bit and made the following suggestion: "Hmm. You or Netherwerks (or both) should do a post about an abandoned worldboat at life's end."

A strange notion. A Worldboat? Hmmm...it was one of those off-hand ideas that sounded interesting, but leaves you wondering what the heck you're going to do with it. Then a few hours ago, while trying to get some sleep, the crazy thing came to me. Like a smack in the forehead with a wet fish, only with no fish.

The Worldboat is an almost lozenge-shaped macrostructure large enough to encompass four entire worlds sequestered within their own orbital rings that act as extended habitat, stabilization mechanisms, and do other things. An artificial sun is at the very center of the Worldboat, locked within a nested set of three selectively transparent shells. This sun is the primary powersource for the vessel.

All along the inner circumference of the hull runs the Primary Transport Tube. Four massive hexurat-like structures serve as the docking facilities for four spheres, artificial Inner Moonlets, that act as ferries between the outermost sections of the Rings surrounding each planet and the Primary Transport Tube (PTT). On the otherside of the PTT there are another set of similar facilities for the Outer Moonlets that serve as ferries to the receiving stations on the interior face of the Hull.

In-between the Four Planets and extending inwards from the PTT are four slightly smaller Core Tubes that connect to the First Shell surrounding the artificial sun. Each of the Core Tubes have a matched and synchronized pair of Elepods--gargantuan elevators several hundred miles in length--that make a six-month transit from the PTT to the First Shell and then another six months back again.

Outside the Hull are Four Hypercrystalline Hexamids that act as defense nodes and the primary means of entering/exiting the Worldboat. The fields or energy produced by the vessels various systems are tuned in such a way as to block intrusive teleportation by hypercharging any object attempting to teleport into the Worldboat without clearance, effectively disintegrating or deflecting any such efforts.

Teleportation within the Worldboat works fine, as long as you're properly attuned to the vessel's interior systems.

At the Top and Bottom of the interior surface of the Hull are two very huge structures that appear to be some sort of paired sphinx-like statues that are also massively parallel and telepathically resonant nodes of concatenated conscious-matter.

The Builders of the Worldboats launched a small flotilla of the things just prior to the complete eradication of all life within their originating universe.

Whatever destroyed all life and drove the Builders to flee across myriad universes in their Worldboats may still be hunting them.

There are a lot of questions to be answered still, but this is a good start.

Thanks C'Nor. We're already drawing-up creatures to go prowl about the abandoned corridors and some of the not-so abandoned sections of one of these Worldboats...