The local area is ridges, hollows, and ravines.

So the hike starts with a steep, multiple switchback down several hundred feet. And then across river bottom woodlands which had been the subject of a recent windstorm which blew down branches and small trees.

It was a fine autumn day. The only time I saw an animal was when I was away from the group. Otherwise the woods were empty. (It was a whitetail deer next to the Natchez Trace.) As the Ladyfaire pointed out she had a toddler to protect her from all the scary woodland animals.

The Cuteasaurus bravely and boldly did the walk (although he did use me as a tractor pull.) Mr. C had issues about wanting to be carried. I was unsympathetic.

This is part of the Tiger Cub requirements as a Go See It for historical things. We started from Merriweather Lewis’s tomb, and circled back to it. This is also part of some Outdoor Activity badge. We’ve done a campout, and now a hike.

I’m really enjoying taking Mr. C thru the Cub Scout electives. It gets me out of my rut. It helps teach him useful things. Its a way for us to bond. Its like taking short little recesses to do something fun, and then getting a little recognition for it.

We took along on the trip a family mobile we had made. Each member of the family had something to symbolize them. Mine was a dice.

We went to McGee’s, a new local restauraunt, to try them out. Tony’s Awesome Nachos was HOT. A real man’s man dish. Take a half a jar of picanted sauce, and a dozen jalopeno’s…and go on from there. It was visually stunning as well. Quite a treat.

The baked potato the Ladyfaire had with her chicken and green beans was soft all the way through (unlike the last place we ate at), which is nice, but not special….except when you realize that it was about eight inches long, a true monster spud, easily twice the size of what I would consider a large spud. If you get a potato at Wendy’s, well you might be able to fit five of them into this one Spud O’ Doom.

And it was very good.

Mr. C got a bowl of spaghetti, and Cuteasuarus got fries and chicken tenders (which were again mega-outsized). Cute’s child meal would have suited many an adult as a largish meal.

So it was pretty neat. The cooking felt like my own style of cooking–Mad Scientist.

After that, we went to the Glasshouse Arcade, and spent a few bucks. It was neat and clean, and had pool tables, a foosball table, air hockey, and some road race video arcade games along with a few others.

Cuteasuarus played three games of “Let’s Watch teh Car Explode” although the game has another name. He loved it. He’s a car loving young tyke.

We also played air hockey, and played with frequent substitiutions. When it was moi vs. the Ladyfair, she won 3-1. She pointed out that 2 of them were ones I did to myself. True. What I didn’t point out was what Inigo Montoya said to the Man In Black…

NO! Not that phrase…the other one.

“I am not left-handed.”

It was a great day, and deo gratia, if that means ‘glory to God’ would be a good phrase about now.

Psi Conditions:

Magic tends to have all sorts of limitations you can do to make your skill rolls easier. In fact I’m trying to put together a list of at least fifty specific limits you can use. But the psion has it harder.

1. Fasting: Traditionally fasting ungrounds the mind from the body, and prepares the mind for more ethereal realms. Also of use in magic.

2. Empty Your Mind Meditation: This shuts up the noisy fellow inside your skull who is jabbering away, and lets you hear other voices, and see more clearly. Perhaps you will hear voices on the wind, or the voice of your own Talent. Perhaps you will see auras, and gain enlightenment.

3. Concentration: It helps to focus. Just as its hard to do the IRS tax forms at a rock concert so its hard to do psi at a rock concert unless you can focus.

4. Sanctum: Using psi often means opening yourself to other perceptions. After all, its hard to be a good recon scout in full body plate. Unfortunately, that means lowering your guard, and occasionally there are nasty, hungry creatures out there ready for a bit of psion with a side of panic. And then there are those who see someone travelling the astral sea, and think how nice it would be to help them…into servitude to a superior mind. Sanctums provide exterior defenses so that the psion can more fully extend herself without retaining some defensive stance.

5. Good vibes: Often related to the Sanctum, but it can be hard to open yourself in a place that is unfriendly. Its like trying to study math while a fly buzzes about. He’s doing no real harm, but its distracting. A room or other area with good vibes aids in concentration.

6. Fury: Anger, near-berserk and sometimes over the edge battle fury has possibly helped create more Telekinetics than any other force in the Multiverse. For some, its a neccessary precondition. They have to be at least ill-tempered to force their will on the Universe. Some have to descend into a screaming frenzy before the power rises. For others, its a source of strength to boost their power.

7. Uncontrolled: Some gifts are purely uncontrolled. Telekinesis is a common example, but Precognition is even more so. Retrocognition is another one. And for a few cursed or blessed, Touch Healing is another one.

8. Emotional boosting: Using your own emotions as kindling, and timber in the fire of your power. Love, fear, and anger are common ones, although hate works well too, but it opens you up to Dangerous Attentions. A driving need to save the life of another could be pushed by love and by fear for example. Typically the end result of such an effort is a state of mild emotional shock as apathy overwhelms the tired character. A danger in botches is that the power will go uncontrolled and run until the very limits of one’s endurance sending the psion into the hospital or the morgue if they fail a simple stamina check after four failed stop checks.

9. Tapping into your Life Force: Tapping into your own lifeforce is inherently dangerous. In some universes, thats the only way such powers work due to a powerblock by the reigning deity of that universe. Simple stamina checks are made every time you use your power. A failure indicates tiredness, and another failure indicates exhaustion, and another failure indicates death. It may not be easy to de-activate a power in such universes. This is a typical joining of limits.

10. Powers Do Not Deactivate Smoothly: Some powers once you get them running want to keep running. Some are merely difficult, and require a simple Willpower roll to stop them. Others, especially Pyrokinetics, and worst Uncontrolled Pyrokinetics require multiple Difficult Willpower Checks. Using Emotion Feeding makes such checks more difficult.

11. Tapping into Other Life Forces:
a. People: Its generally considered evil to do this to unwilling victims. There are creatures known as psionic vampires which are strongly addicted to this procedure. For some psions, the desire to turn vampire, and drink the mind of another down like a slurpee is always a temptation. However, it offers a great deal of power, and a buffer against any botches is a typically related skill. One is bathed in power, and little things like brain burns don’t bother you inside the cocoon. Whether they will once you come down off the high or not is another question. Frequently such ‘draining’ is more addictive than the most powerful drugs.
b. Plants: Not as blatantly evil, and much more difficult. The typical user is generally a more cautious and contemplative person who doesn’t go in for the thrill kill either. Most such users try to save the plant while they drink of it.
c. The Universal Field of Creation and Destruction: If you can tap into this, then, in all seriousness, and humble respect, why are you taking Doctor Mentalman’s class? Please, O Great One, do not evaporate the college where this class is being taught./Gulps nervously.

Okay, thats a 1d10 chart. And I think I have a few more in my brain, but its folding up, so I’ll move on to Chart the Second.But first, let me clarify…11c (hmm, its not a d10 chart after all) is about a PC tapping into the power of an Ascended Psionic Being, and one of truly awesome power.

It is possible to have psi aid from another psi which should be another slot, but this is as an evil example of humongous power for this slot….

“Death, Chaos, and Despair, you revealed yourself to me. Fill me with your power that I may cast down this foolish Alchemist.”
The psi call goes out along the previously established link (which may or may not require a skill roll. I’d require one.) And the psi beings who took those three names who have the 15@ skill of Permanently Transcending Physical form, here, and decide to pour their mental power into the evil mentalist.

One reason that the Ascended Ones might do this is that they learned a version of the Ascend Skill that requires non-direct intervention.

At this point, the Alchemist is considering his options as he watched the evil mentalist whip up a hurricane out of the blue sky…..

At this point, I think the Alchemist could still win, but it would be an interesting technique to take a bunch of second-rate psions, and turn them one at a time into world-beaters because they were vessels of the power of Ascended Masters.

Botches of Telepathy (as broadly construed–any form of mind-reading, communication…)

1. Switch minds in psionic triangle. Psion A botches as he talks to B. C is standing nearby. A goes into C’s brain. C goes into B’s brain. B goes into A’s brain.

2. Aphasia. You try to say “Lets get supper.” You really say. “Fire purple cello.”

3. You’ve cut off communications with the lower part of your body. Your brain is active, but your Central Nervous System isn’t getting any signal. Yup, this is usually fatal.

4. A random someone in the same universe, or another universe can hear your thoughts as you can hear theirs if they project. They think they’re going nuts. They are already not all that well-balanced, and although a nice person, they have a real hard time getting through the day without messing up. You are sooooo not helping. This is good for guilting the player. This gives the player a chance to help someone normal with normal issues.

5. Everyone who hates you in this universe now knows where you are. You don’t realize this.

6. You’re broadcasting your thoughts to anyone who sees you.

7. You can hear the thoughts of everyone at the same time within a hundred yards of you. The babble is overwhelming.

8. You’ve established a control link for your body to someone else. When he tries to move his left arm, he has to contest with you. You may not be able to move. He may not be able to move. You both may be able to move with both of you are in partial control of each other’s bodies.

9. You can hear the thoughts of (dogs, cats, mice, birds….whatever). They realize this, and want to be social. They frequently have no sense of manners, and a number of them have issues which they expect you to deal with…now.

10. You’ve tapped into the brain of a man with Secrets. Lots of Secrets. The type of Secrets people kill for. Good thing he got a flash of your face (which you did of him as well) so he can come and discuss it with you, isn’t it? Most common types of targets are National Security shadow warriors, Mafiosi dons, and terrorists planning a mission.

11. You’ve tapped into some sort of intergalactic clairvoyant scanning beam, and telepathically downloaded all available information. Now your brain is full. Really. You have to make Willpower checks to concentrate enough to walk because there simply is no room. Plus, your brain is about to explode in 5 +1d10 hours. Maybe the aliens can help you, if they believe you’re not a data pirate who did not respect their copyright. Frequently a Botch Rider of the next one is included.

12. Random Personality Traits: You’ve picked up a little bit of this, and a little bit of that. You botched in the street, and you picked up the construction worker’s appetite, the skateboarders love for heavy metal, the UPS man’s seriousness, and the tendency of the cab driver to scream insults in Nigerian. You pick up very little of any use, but just enough to find yourself scarfing down a footlong meatball sub, listening to Cruxshadows with a thoughtful look at the newspaper as you curse the stupidity of politicians in Nigerian. And you don’t like subs, enjoy Celtic, and never bother yourself with politicians as they are boring. Roll simple Perception or difficult Willpower checks to avoid acting not like yourself.

A more comedic version of this has it as an ongoing process. You walk down the street, and pick up traits (but no skills above 1@1 even if the original possessor has it much higher) from people you pass.

13. Congratulations you’ve summoned the Fleet of the Alien Conquerors (whats that praying mantis group from NagaWorld?) to your Home World. If really bad, you called their mother something nasty in Alien. They might not have a mother, but they do take insult. You have 1+1d4 days until the Total Subjugation of the Earth begins.

14. You did not realize it, but your Shout-Out attracted attention, Dangerous Attention. The Forces of Evil cannot always directly intervene, but there is usually at least a serial killer in the neighbourhood who they can call his attention to you as you walk past. And if you’re in a high-magic world, you’re really lucky cause they’re coming to deal with you personally. You’ve just dropped into 1)A serial killer stalker movie. 2) A Hockey-masked Maniac, or a Dreaming Monster, or Dracula is coming to drop by for a screaming good time. If you’re really unlucky, they all are.

15. You make a connection to some doomed historic figure in the past. I hope this is not temporal loop causing, cause otherwise I’ll have to do something.

The figure could be a priestess of Atlantis as the island grows more disturbed, or it could be a passenger on the Titanic. They know they’re doomed. All they want is for someone to hold their hand over the next 1d10 days, and to bring their existence to light in the modern world.

This is three-handkerchief time. And also an excellent time to have a would-be apprentice to the verser mentor, or a male-female long-distance totally doomed relationship set up.

16. Your subconscious brain now has a direct link to your will. It wants, it needs, it desires, and its going to go for it. Happily, its not really a great planner as logical considerations don’t really enter in that much. Also forethought, and good judgment are somewhat absent as well..

This can be played as tragic, and it will be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but with less sense on Hyde‘s part, and more animalism. Or it can be played for comedy, and it will still be pretty scary as the character dives in front of moving buses to try to retrieve the luscious looking sausage that he knocked off the hot dog vendor’s grill, and then dropped because it burned his hand.

With a difficult roll, your Superego can temporarily restrain (RS for ten seconds) your Id.

17. You can’t talk, and you can’t hear. So the only form of communication you got (other than writing) is telepathy.

18. You’re hearing smells, and seeing sounds, and tasting pain, and smelling sight. It is a complete mind-trip.

19. You’ve lost your mind, literally. Actually, you’ve lost your brain. It is the receiver for the mind. And your mind cannot find its home brain. You are a detached viewpoint looking out from behind the eyes of various people. You are able to jump to them and test them to see if they are you. You don’t see people as people, but as aura fields which makes the whole thing much more difficult.

20 Amnesia. Amnesia is good, right? I mean I think it is, but I can’t remember.

Items:

1. Ring of the Sensitive: This orange stoned ring allows one entry into the Towers of the Sensitive, and serves as a Mental focus.
2. Draken Voirze Stone: Holding this stone provides a feeling of good vibes, and the occasion uncontrolled flicker of clairvoyance tied to danger sense.
3. White Crystal: +10 Sit-mod to Telekinesis as it helps one to keep their thoughts in order.
4. Mindtrapper: This crystal is capable of removing the mind from the body of a practising psion.
5. Psionic receiver–Various items are rigged to be sensitive to telepathic coded messages. This can trigger a wide varity of effects.
6. Sunstone: Power hides in this. +10 DR to all psion skills while holding this.
7. Mirror of Hiding: This gives +10 to pseudoinvisibility, and +20 if the searcher is a psion.
8. Silk Scarf: This causes a Suppress at 1@5 of psionic activity in whatever it is placed over. Silk naturally absorbs psionic energy.
9. Syringe of Mindstill—25 Sitmod to all psionic activity, and its a Difficult check to try.
10. Liquer of Madness: This causes a +20 to learning a new psi skill. However botches are typically 2d10+ 10 on the GE chart as they are expecially powerful. At best, the character is drunk and stoned out of his mind on something similar to acid (for the skill to succeed, he must be.)

Okay, I’m hungry, and kinda risen from my creative trance to be surprised by the time passage….

Eric

On Wednesday, I intended rest.

This did not quite happen as the house needed some work, and the computer had crashed (probably due to some virus) and the demigoddess of electronica was trying hard to get it back in order. Plus the kids weren’t in a mood to relax.

It was a good day.

AWANAs that night at First Baptist, and I took the Ladyfaire out for cokes and conversation which is always nice.

The next day, Thursday was more genuine relaxation with the computer still down. The Ladyfaire took the opportunity to spend much of the day yard saling as I took care of the tykes who were very agreeable this day.

She found some Palladium books for sale, and after calling me, bought them. An educated to your tastes, shopaholic wife is a blessing in disguise. She also found that the seller was a gamer (of course) who had some friends who wanted a Gamemaster. So….perhaps I’ll be running.

I talked to some of them later that day when we all went out for a bit of shopping (the weather was wonderful, fall weather, and not getting out would have been a crime). Oddly enough, one of the potential gamers for this group had played Multiverser. Weird, since I try to write for them, and MV is an indie press (with a game that should take the world by storm since its just so cool!)

I hope to run my Temple of the Dying Sun d20 for them this week which is a game of serious morals, and very clever puzzles, and lots of strategy.

On Friday, I took the tykes down to Babba’s house with Babba and Grandmother Ashley. He’s ‘Babba’ for the typical reason that when Mr. C was younger, thats what Mr. C called him.

But I’ll discuss Friday in my next post…

So, no perfect attendance this semester unlike last one (which earns you bucks at a local bank).

We left about 3:30 on Saturday which was good since our latest leave time was to be 4:00. Somehow, I had thought we were going to Knoxville, and thats a long drive so I was set to drive five hours. When I had to do a nice three hour drive it made it easy.

I kinda wished we’d gone to a KFC buffet, but the exit zipped by too fast, and later we went to a McD’s. We’ve been playing the Monopoly game at McD’s, and winning Mcflurry’s and a free breakfast….so far no fifty thousand dollars, but we keep trying.

The hotel was nice with a microwave and a fridge. It was situated between a Shell station and a Subway, and just up the road from BK and McD’s.

We got settled, and found out that the laptop connection had problems. So the hotel manager and I think owner, a charming Indian gent, gave us a different room. The boys liked that as they got to tote stuff down the sidewalk between rooms as they raced between the two of them.

I played on the laptop, and we all watched Journeyman which is a new take on Quantum Leap. Its not as good, but it has its own quirky charm. Also, its more of a story arc than episodes with the background being formed by our hero’s struggles with his marriage as he and his wife try to cope with his uncontrolled timejumping, and the fact that he meets his former fiance’ who ‘died’ in the past.

The boys are always wound up in hotel rooms. A bath does not calm them much. In the end, I’m forced to put one on his own bed, and the other on the floor as the adults try to get to sleep. Y’see, they want to play and goof off if they are on the same bed. I had to mention many times…

“Keep your feet on the bed.” As one or the other tried to put his feet up or down where his brother was.

Part of this is the result of being confined in a chair in a car, and part is the new surroundings and excitement of being on ‘vacation’ which was Mr. C’s favorite word for a while.

The next day is the Aquarium to which we have year-round tickets.

First we park down from the Coldstone Creamery ice cream shoppe, and overlooking the Tennessee River. The boys played in Riverside Park on the play gym, and Da got to get Mr. C and himself to climb over a rock-climbing wall twice. Kewl.

We go through River Journeys and the boys are both enthralled with the extremely playful otters. Mr. C’s new favorite word is ‘otter’ delivered in a mournful tone as he wants to go back. We buy him an otter plushie in the gift shop. It feels a bit cheap, despite the price, and yup, it is. It rips, and once we get home, Da and Mum have to needle and thread it back up.

The Cuteasaurus was fascinated by the turtles. And he should be. We saw one poor turtle that kept trying to get up on a log, and kept falling back, or falling over on the other side as his turtle buds had all the good spots already. Later, he played with his turtle plushie, and even later, back home, when asked by the Ladyfaire what he wanted to watch…

“Thomas the Train?”
“No, no.”
“Ninja Turtles?”
“Turtle.”

So a new word for the Cuteasaurus which was great.

We went to eat at the TGoodnessIF restaruaunt in the same complex which was decent. Last time we did this, it was superfabulous. This time, the AC was cranked to Artic Breeze, and I may have confused my waiter into not tossing my salad. And the wait was….glacial. But, we got our food, and refilled and recovered after much walking. Both boys ate well with Mr. C eating very well so I was glad for that.

Sometime I want to go across the street to Cheeburger Cheeburger and see what that is like.

Back at the Aquarium, it was time to let the boys splash in the ‘creek’ and climb down the ‘waterfalls’ with all th eother little kids. Lots of fun was had by them as they .

We checked out the local Zoo, and found it. We had not been really aware that Chattanooga had a zoo. Its way back in Hank Warner?? Park behind a bunch of sports fields. They were renovating the Park which should be nice since it already looked pretty neat. Perhaps on another trip we can go to the Zoo.

That night we went to Subways, and I went first because Da needed a little alone time. Bought two subs for ten, and got the clerk who was cool to wait and let my wife pick out hers when she got there. Which messes up their inventory a little bit as they need to type into the system when I buy, but like I said, he was cool.

Next day, more Aquarium–this time Ocean Journeys. The Penguin exhibit was a fine exhibit of penguins napping. We went quicker through this building.

More ‘creek’ time with much more Da chasing kids up and down the waterfall trace to keep an eye on them. I hear that Cuteasaurus when he went around a corner climbed up twenty feet up a stone step hill. He’ scautious, but he’s young too. I let Mr. C climb the whole thing.

We went to ‘America’s Thrift Store’ and I got some books, and Mr. C got some pants. Let’s see…Retief was one.

Later, we went to the Missionary Ridge Railroad Ride. It was six miles there and back which did not take very long. The bulk of the trip was getting out at the turn-around, watching a ‘wheelhouse’?? in operation as it turned around the train engine, and looking at some trains and hearing a tiny lecture.

We got some pictures with the tykes and me although Cuteasuarus was mostly against thijs whole picture thing.

The tunnel through the ridge was dissapointing. Light, see a little of the sides, and then its dark. Can’t see anything outside. Maybe they should have turned off the lights inside or somethign to make for a better view.

That night, we saw a Dragon Caves game store. We checked, and they had moved. A nice hairdresser guy and his bud from next store gave us directions, but in the dark, we could not find the new place. Besides, I think it was closed.

The next morning we found it. It was going to open late, and it did not seem that big. Perhaps if I had not already been scheduled to go to Constellation, I might have gone.

We went to Eastgate Mall which was a lot of fun. The boys got to go to the toy store, the Disney Store, and I think maybe another toy store. We did most of the mall in relatively quick fashion–just enough time to explore a store, and absorbs its interest, and then on our way.

We ate at the food court at a Chinese place. As is customary, the various Chinese places (there were four) were all handing out samples of chicken. We swung around the whole court, and decided that the first was the best (being the cheapest helped). At first, Mr. C had thought his sample was hot, but evidently he got a different kind.

So he ended up sneaking up to the guy handing out free samples, and demonstrating why he is a top-notch moocher. I think he got something like four samples for himself. Of course, he’s not old enough to know better, mostly.

After that it was playground in the mall. And Mr. C got chased around by a younger girl who decided he was a dog, and needed to be c hased.

We went to see the dam, and walked along the river. My Ladyfaire showed me the place where she and some fellow SCAdians used to fence with rapiers before she met me.

We ate late at Kacey’s Home Cooking, a family buffet style place, which despite our arriving at fifteen minutes until closing made sure we got enough to eat.

We went home, and the boys napped on the way home. Which meant they were wide awake when we got home. A few hours later, and finally bed for them.

Our Chattanooga long weekend was over.

Ummmm, you could have fly cruisers. Gnat personal transports. The outsider Moth-nectar collector teams. Spider-tanks. Beetle-class destroyers. Wasp pirate-vessel

====I’m not at all sure how you’d build a vehicle. Much less how you build an animal.

Also, these strengths and what not would have to be relative strengths since the spider is not on the correct scale for a typical setting.

For size measurements, a foot equals one millimeter in the Normal Human Scale.

But lets give it a try…

Character Name: Jack the Spider Tank Gender:Male Height: Ten feet Weight: Species:Spider

Persuasion (PER): 1@5
Charisma (CHA): 1@5
Animal Magnetism (ANMAG): 1@5
Strength (STR): 2@5 (Average insect str is going to start at 2@1 and go up to ants at 3@10)
Stamina (STA): 1@5
Resistance (RES): 1@4 (spiders are somewhat feeble here)
Density (DEN): 1@1
Flexibility (FLEX): 1@5
Agility (AGI): 1@5
Hand/Eye (H/E): 2@5
Intellect (INT): 0@5
Intuition (TUIT):1@5
Education Level (EDLEV): 1@2 (Basic commands known.)
Willpower (WP): 1@5

Averaged Attributes
Target Value (TV):
Damage Value (DV):
Ranged Strike Value (RSV):
Martial Strike Value (MSV):

Skills:
Wall-crawling: 2@5
Web-spinning: 2@2
Jumping: 1@7
Pincer bite: 1@8
Leg Grab and Pin: 1@10
Dodge: 2@1
Wear Armor: 1@8
Understand Language: Bug People Pheromonal Language 1@5
Hold Platform Steady 1@5

Armor shifts attack down one damage level. Armor is made of chitin shell.

Catapult on howdah on top of spider. Catpult launchmaster is Bugfolk as are his two assistants. They require the spider to hold the platform steady in order to have any chance of success.
==============================More McCallister below…
For actual monsters you could have E.Coli(insert common bacteria name here), the Plague(octopi-looking viral/bacterium, a crossbread, it’s the age ol’enemy!), Colony010(monstrous looking failed attempts at the original idea), machinos(nanites from other experiments, usually benign but still deadly if you are caught while they are building something).

There would likely be some kind of schism between the outside frontier, and the inside lab, so maybe two factions.

Bug weapons:
claw-grapplers, stinkbug gland(jams transmissions), acid grenades, melee weapons, venoms, neuro-transmitter scramblers(or instinct reprogrammers), paralyzing jellies, webbing, mandibles, limb-blades, egg injectors, parasite injectors…

Such books tend to start in the Middle Ages with some esoteric conflict between powerful men with the hero dying, but his secret is safe.

Now after this, there is a secret order which keeps the secret and a bad guy order which hunts for them. There is a lot of secret codes and symbology, and famous people in history are part of this conspiracy.

Gnostic gospels tend to be a large part of this as well with some highly questionable revisionist history.

—————————————

Now to flip this around:

Verser arrives in Middle Ages in prison with injured man with secret. Man takes him for an angel, and promises he kept the great secret. He’s delirious from being tortured. He gives hero item of secret worth. Its a cryptic key which will unlock the secrets of the ages.

Victim dies. Later prisonkeeper comes and sees dead man, and verser. He wonders where the verser came from but is willing to torture him as well. Verser dies somehow, perhaps in some sort of desperate escape attempt.

Verser comes back a couple worlds later in the modern contingency world of the preceding world. He finds a subtly disagreeable world….one advances through ranks toward the Ultimate Truth meanwhile doing all sorts of frequently degrading favors for your Teachers. Its like Frat Pledge Week for life, although not quite so blatant. And unless one reaches the 32nd level, one does not know one is truly Worthy, one only hopes one is worthy of entry into Paradise.

But each level tends to reveal truths that the previous level might have disagreed with. What starts at Level One through Five as a fairly decent and simple religion, by level twenty has mutated into something fairly awful, and by Level 32nd the Ultimate Truth is revealed–Its all a hoax. God is dead, miracles never happened, and the whole thing is a hoax to keep the fools content enough so they don’t kill themselves in despair. The Ultimate Enlightened Ones who are supposed to be assured of entrance into Heaven where all others are merely possible know that Heaven doesn’t exist.

But, but….there is a secret order….its symbols can be found in diver’s places, in public squares and in the keystones of buildings. Some of these symbols lead to secret truths, in part because the Crossbearers have been persecuted down through the ages with extreme venom. Whole countries have been overthrown to get at them. But they survive. It helps that they are frequently some of the brightest men of their time.

And they have a Truth. God lives, miracles are real, and anyone, not just the wise, can know with ease that they can enter into Glory as a gift. But this Truth is profoundly subversive, and so the Powers That Be have deliberately tried to suppress it for centuries.

==================================

The other writer is Terry Brooks. He writes Shannara and the Knight and the Word series. He’s joining these two histories together. The Knight is a modern day warrior mage trying to hold off the end of the world. He’s going to fail. Shannara is the reborn world of magic after the end of the technological world.

Its quite an impressive intellectual feat in its way.

However, he’s started a bridging series where there are still Knights, and the Elves are moving into play. The world is falling apart as Demons and Once-Men assault anything Human, and put them in slave camps, and Freaks (transformed people who I think become the basis of the later Races of Shannara) run around. Human society has broken down, and most Humans live in large walled cities. Demons gather Armies and go smash these cities.

The Knight tries to tell the people to leave the cities and go into the country.

I don’t get this. You have a defensible position with organization. Granted you have a fixed position, but still…. And its not like Terry Brooks is not familar with the value of fixed defenses. One of his earliest of his many, many books is a wonderful tale of the onslaught of a possibly unstoppable army into layers and layers of defenses.

I think he’s trying to say City=Badness without actually coming out and saying it. Or ‘the old society must be completely destroyed in order for the new and better way to be born’ but you can’t sell people on that either.

In some ways it reminds me of the Tower of Babel. God wanted to destroy Earth’s culture as it was, and put something new in its place. It is instructive in this that two apparently equal forces, the Word and the Void are in contest. These are gods.

I find this type of thing to be a bit annoying. Perhaps its justified, but I usually dislike it when someone has an ulterior motive, a hidden agenda. Gods are allowed to do this, of course. But it seems that the deity should make a better arguement instead of a transparently false one….even ‘trust me, I’m smarter and wiser than you’ would be a decent arguement from the deity.

Of course, in some ways, the Knight does get that arguement, and perhaps one might say its merely his human failing that he does not pass it on to the people.

Its an interesting religion. Its not very evangelistic at all. There are a few chosen, and thats it. Otherwise, the Word acts in the quiet places of one’s heart. It doesn’t recruit worshippers, but it does want people to live according to its way. Problem is people have been deliberately choosing to go toward the Void for some time now.

I’m not sure what to think of this, and I suspect that that may be deliberate, or it could be that I am simply obtuse.

In any case, I can make a variant of this.

In this world of sin and sorrow, the righteous who put service to the Logres, to each other, and ultimately to themselves are few and far in between. Instead a false rationalism abounds, a rat race of pointless ambition is the highest goal of humanity, ethics are disdained as old-fashioned, and cowardice is enshrined as a virtue.

Madness and conspiracy are common parlance, but the only true conspiracy is the only one not mentioned.

It is understood that evolution has been punctuated, and occasionally accelerated by cosmic rays in past days. There have been times in the Earth’s pre-history where great bursts of cosmic radiation turned Earth into a wildly sped up evolutionary experiment.

So why not do this with Science?

The fact that its immoral to bombard fetuses with radiation is ignored, and shoved aside as irrelavent. And those who protest are ‘anti-science’ and ‘anti-progress’.

Other possibilities seem to be appearing in the human genome. It develops that the human gentetic structure is at least ten times more complicated than realized. And among other things, it holds the ability to alter itself to deal with radical changesin the environment. Most such changes are in teh children of a parent who suffered.

So ‘Alties’ are started to be rumored. Beings with inhuman visages, and strange powers are seen in dark alleys.

Meanwhile the children of the Ray Experiments are growing up in their State Orphanages. They have little love, and seem to need little. The experiment is judged a failure; its in reality far worse. In reality, they are a bunch of buddng sociopaths. In a good environment many of them could be saved, but in the orphanages managed by uncaring gov’t officials they develop their own society based on a currency of power abused.

There are a few heroes trying to build something that can survive the End of the World. Some of these dream dreams sent by God.

The corrupt cities with their present day only focus, and their love of consumerism, and hatred of true individuality and righteousness are like fat, diseased cows to the wolves of the Ray Experiments once the cohort is released. Its remarkable how quickly the great institutions in some cities folded. All it took was kneecapping three writers for the New York Times to decide to toe the line.

But things fell apart. The Rays were not deft enough to run the society on their own. So they didn’t mind too much when people fled ‘their benevolent rule’. It gave them an excuse to cut loose with Hunting Patrols.

At first these were Apache gunships. Later as technology failed, they were on horseback. But an organized patrol with weapons and skills was worth many times its number in fleeing refugees. It is a truism that most of the dead in a battle come when one side flees.

But some few fought back, they urged those in cities to fight back, and many did. The Rays were thrust outside the great cities which were now but a fifth of their old size.

This was okay for the Rays as well. They still needed a smaller society. They set up armies, and forced the ‘recruits’ to engage in diabolical practises in order to bind them to the new order. Then they sent their cannon fodder against the great cities.

Unfortunately, most of the cities were soft still. They fled, and were pursued and slaughtered.

A few fought back against the Rays. Some military forces held together. Some Alties formed the core of various groups, and with their powers they taught the Rays respect. Some of the Prophets developed small powers as well, and even some few developed Altie powers. But none of the Rays could get either. That was okay…they had learned what drugs to take to make themselves temporarily superhuman.

The war between the Logres and his poor pitiful counterfeit, the Power continues. No man, not even a Prophet knows the end.

Eric

I was reading Dream Thief by Stephen Lawhead, and although it doesn’t really have this idea, it reminded me of one. Although it does have the bit about inter-social conflict between the Decent Humans and Secret Off-World Powers.

Everyone in a certain social circle has a certain Great Role to Play. Some are playing lesser roles, or are embarrassed by their own greatness, or are fearful of the role, or are simply in the wrong role…but once the psi-active verser can show them the correct role, they will shine.

Meanwhile, there are several others who are operating within the group who have strictly negative roles, and they hide their evil behind good manners, or protocol, or snippy moralizing….these people want to destroy someone or something…perhaps the project that everyone is working on like an FTL drive or a Cure for Cancer or whatever.

These malefactors are trying to take over the group to use it for power, and they have no interest in benefiting mankind….possibly because they are demonically inspired.

The manager might be gifted, but he needs to see that he is the True King which will gift him with greater boldness, and allow him to feel the concern for his followers that his shrunken role of Good Manager is not supposed to feel. The brilliant young scientist needs to realize that he is the Source of New Ideas, and the brilliant older scientist needs to see himself as the Tower of Logic that he is, and the polymath might be closest to understanding his true nature as the Sun Which Shines Blessings on All as his brain provides flickers of enlightenment to everyone he meets…

Stuff like that.

And once they realize who they are, then greatness comes easier to them. Their project will be completed in record time with a success.

And perhaps, the verser might then create some sort of Matrix or Union or Pyramid of Minds, perhaps in the shape of a great phoenix which takes up the minds of the others, and creates something vast and powerful to strike down the Malefactors with mind power. And the malefactors had thought before the verser came that they alone had the secret to mind power, but they find that the verser knows more than they know.

One reason the Mindbird might be neccessary is that the Malefactors are fleeing to safety which would require terrible effort to winkle them out (say they’re flying a private plane to the Last Totalitarian State). So, the malefactors get attacked by the mindbird on the way to safety.

And then maybe I need to take a week to do fun things. I’ve done a lot of fun things in the last couple days, but my brain is overclocked and burnt out a bit. Maybe instead, I need to pull back to a minimum, and only do the lightest, most amusing stuff.

I may end up taking MH to a restauraunt on Monday, and sitting there for several hours as I finish it up.

I need a new world for McCallister as I just versed him. He’s said he’s interested in ‘Realm of the Great Elves’ which is on this site, but I don’t feel like running it. Maybe I’ll do a placeholder world…like the one with all the city gangs meeting in a factory.

Settings
1.Island
2.Asteroid
3.Desert
4.Mountains
5.Canyon Lands
6.Plains
7.Underground
8.Extradimensional (rollx3 comination)
9.City/Urban
10.Illusionary setting (roll again)
11.Spaceship
12.Air
13.Fire World
14.Water world
15.Micro World(s)
16.Macro world(s)
17.Dungeon/Labrinth
18.Unfinished development
19.Compound Setting-rollx2 combination
20.A living setting-roll again to combine
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Time Periods
1.Old west
2.Victorian
3.Modern day
4.Noir
5.Cyberpunk (2015 style)
6.UNified World (2050 style)
7.80s
8.WWII
9.WWIII
10.Depression era
11.Prehistoric
12.Alpha Civilization**
13.Egyptian
14.Me
15.Roman/Greek/Assyrian/Babalonian
16.Azec/Incan
17.Renaisance
18.Far future(Trekish)
19.Colonization(future/old wordl)
20.Compound Time period-rollx2 combination

**Advanced Prehistorical civilization(There is evidence that supports a theory of an advanced civilization before ours. Linking the Ancient Monolithes located around the world. Something lead to their decline…and the evidence has been almost erased.)
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Cowrie shells, cigarrettes, and many other items (generally those that are rare) have been used.

Credits–The Typical SF currency

Latest Stable Computer Processing Time–the monetary system for part of the Starsong System. Millis are a great deal of wealth as they represent one millisecond worth of a planetary net. Of course, such uses don’t give you the right to the whole milli in one millisecond because others have priority claims, but you can be sure of being able to spend it all in the span of two minutes. One key factor is that the worth of a milli, or one of its lesser percents is continually increasing as the planetary nets get more mature. And there are different values for different capability planetary nets.

Starsong also has a monetary system for commodity items. This is backed up by charitable foundations who own robo-factories capable of churning out millions of ‘things’. It is fiat money backed up by huge amounts of potential production.

Another theoretical advanced monetary concept used in Starsong is Interest Units or IU’s. These entitle you to the services of experts, and banks have contracts with these experts to serve as backup for the fiat money the bank creates. Because in Starsong, you can get just about anything that is not perfectly made for you at quite reasonable rates, but if you want a master item customized to you, and most people do, then it tends to require a human expert.

The deben is an Egyptian measure of a precious metal used in trade that weighs in at three ounces. Rod shaped ingots are multiples of the deben.

Also, coils and the aforementioned rings are other forms of toting large amounts of cash about.

Electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver, is a popular metal choice for coins.

Also, money in the shape of spades and knives, but quite tiny has been made with bronze among the Han.

Salt and spices have also been used. In the Middle Ages, in Britain, it was possible to pay rent to the landlord in pepper.

In Temple of the Dying Sun there are Lancaster Gold and Silver Marks which are regarded as very good, but the ultimate is Auria which is a gold coin produced by the City Auriador, the richest city in the world.

Another system for future settings is ‘Glory’. That is, you are helpful to another person,a nd they grant you points of Glory. Each person gets a certain amount of Glory simply for breathing.

Another method is a local currency such as Ithaca Time Hours where Hours are accepted by a list of local businesses who are contracted to accept them. It has benefits of boosting a local economy where you have underutilized capacity. This is especially useful in economically oppressed communities which have abundant capacity, but most of the money has been sucked out of the system by their oppressors, and other outsiders.

Another concept is Service Hours where one helps for an hour, and one is able to draw an hour of service out later from anyone. This includes experts and non-experts. This tends to create a fairly egalitarian economic system because while experts will always be more valued than non-experts, you can’t pay them that much more because everyone has the same amount of time in a day. There is some hierarchy as experts will likely be able to work as many hours as they are willing, while the less skilled may not be able to get a job.