Comets, Wordlets, Appendix N Solar System Settings, & Free Science Fantasy Downloads - OSR Commentary

"Man's conquest of the interplanetary gulfs has been fraught with many tragedies. Vessel after vessel, like venturous motes, disappeared in the infinite — and had not returned. Inevitably, for the most part, the lost explorers have left no record of their fate. Their ships have flared as unknown meteors through the atmosphere of the further planets, to fall like shapeless metal cinders on a never-visited terrain; or have become the dead, frozen satellites of other worlds or moons. A few, perhaps, among the unreturning fliers, have succeeded in landing somewhere, and their crews have perished immediately, or survived for a little while amid the inconceivably hostile environment of a cosmos not designed for men.

In later years, with the progress of exploration, more than one of the early derelicts has been descried, following a solitary orbit; and the wrecks of others have been found on ultraterrene shores. Occasionally — not often — it has been possible to reconstruct the details of the lone, remote disaster. Sometimes, in a fused and twisted hull, a log or record has been preserved intact. Among others, there is the case of the Selenite, the first known rocket ship to dare the zone of the asteroids."

Master of the Asteroid

Clark Ashton Smith

The asteroid belt is home to the remains of several worlds including planet X & Y along with the ruins of its moons. Many ancient & alien civilizations once thrived there but now only dust, comets, & asteroids remain or is there more here?!

Cover of Wonder Stories, October 1932 Artwork is public domain
Download available right here.  

The inner worlds of my OSR  'Old Solar System' setting have been haunting with my weekend game of Troll Lords Castles & Crusades mixed with a healthy dose of Amazing Adventures. So I've been dusting off some of my Old Solar System notes about Leigh Brackett, C.L. Moore, & many other Appendix N authors. What it brings to mind are mini campaign settings that I've used in the past for OSR game adventure nights. Lately I've been missing my 'Old Solar System' OSR setting & I've decided to go back to it.  "The Lake of the Gone-Forever" By Leigh Brackett (Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1949) is an old favorite tale of mine which is freely available from the Internet Archive here. 

Since I can't seem to get a straight answer from Dungeon Master Steve's players I'm working on a set of mini campaign settings based around some of the ideas that filtered through  'Off On A Comet' By Jules Vernewhich is an old favorite novel of mine. I still loath & hate the Anti Semitic totally unnecessary part of the novel.  But the novel has some incredible ideas for a mini campaign setting including a miniature worldlet being the comet. That bit I think has more then a bit of merit & could be used as a part of a Lovecraftian Sword & Science fantasy backdrop for the asteroid belt for my 2100 Era Earth. 



A Comet by Jules Verne 1964 Ace D 245
Verne's book depicts a chunk of Europe being taken by the comet & a pre World War I style empire building in miniature happening with German, English,etc characters building countries on the banks of this comet worldlet. Besides giving a dungeon master a chance to use early 1900's adventurers in such a setting the book also indicates that there were prior civilizations on the comet that were marooned on its shores. And here's where things get interesting. 



Both C.L. Moore & Leigh Brackett also used comets, asteroids, & meteor style worldlets to preserve the remains of ancient civilizations. But long before them HP Lovecraft mentioned In The Shadow Out of Time that a split of the Great Race had been preserved out in the asteroid field in a inter system colony. Why are they out there & are they watching the miniature colony worlds that they created such as those from  "The Lake of the Gone-Forever" By Leigh Brackett (Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1949

Віщун - http://vixis24m.deviantart.com/art/Great-Race-of-Yith-394630656


There are parts of a comet that are a remnant of Atlantis & Hyperborea. Parts & pieces that have  become a part of a comet as various cultures have been swept up to become a part of this comet worldlet. This includes some very alien cultures from across the scattered multiverse mixed in with a variety of human ones. In fact I'm thinking of miniature human cities perhaps something akin to some of H.G. Wells more advanced humanoid ones from When The Sleeper Wakes. 


The fact is that I'm thinking that one or more of these small jeweled asteroids might be the preserves of ancient Elves, Dwarves or other fantasy races. These races in turn might be sitting on some very dangerous  lesser known demons, gods, alien Lovecraftian entities that have been hinted about in various classic modules. Yes I'm speaking of WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun  written by Gary Gygax and published by TSR in 1982. Set the module on a comet or asteroid world & you have an instantly incredibly weird & dangerous classic dungeon romp! 


In point of fact if the dungeon master wanted to have a campaign cross over point between different OSR or old school settings a comet or asteroid is the perfect adventure staging ground.
Case in point is crossing over Bruce Heard's World of Calidar  with say Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea? Well an asteroid is the perfect point as desperate bands of adventurers try to cope with a hostile & dangerous environment as well as their respective alien cultures! 



Under alien sky these bands of adventurers company may be the least of their worries. The magick of their sky & void ships may be fading fast & they'll have to survive many of the classic or OSR monsters that a dungeon master will dream up! 

Adapting Clark Ashton Smith's 'Marooned in Andromeda' To The 'Old Solar System' Campaign Setting"

"I'm going to put you fellows off on the first world of the first planetary system we come to."
The icy deliberation of Captain Volmar's tones was more terrible than any show of anger would have been. His eyes were chill and sharp as the sapphire lights in snow; and there was a fanatic rigor in the tightening of his lips after the curtly spoken words.
The three mutineers looked sullenly at each other and at the captain, but said nothing. The leveled automatics of Volmar and the three other members of the space-flier's crew made all appeal or argument seem absurd. They knew that there could be no relenting on the part of that thin, austere mariner of the interstellar gulfs, who had dreamt of circumnavigating space and thus becoming the Magellan of the constellations.


For five years he had driven the great vessel further and further away from the earth and the solar system, which had long ago dwindled into points of telescopic light — for five years he had hurled it onward at more than the speed of cosmic rays, through the shoreless, bottomless night, among the shifting stars and nebulae. The configuration of the skies had changed beyond all recognition; the Signs were no longer those that are known to terrestrial astronomers; far-off stars had leapt into blazing suns and had faded back to stars; and there had been a flying glimpse of stranger planets. And year by year the cold terror of the endless deeps, the vertiginous horror of untold infinitude, had crept like a slow paralysis upon the souls of the three men; and a nostalgia for the distant earth had swept them with unutterable sickness; till they could bear it no longer, and had made their hasty, ill-planned attempt to secure control of the vessel and turn it homeward.

This issue of Wonder Stories marks the first appearance of Clark Ashton Smith's
"Captain Volmar" sequence which is really interesting because these stories have about them a weird almost but not quite original Star Trek quality about them.

"Smith's novelette "Marooned in Andromeda", the first entry in his "Captain Volmar" sequence, was the cover story in the October 1930 issue of Wonder Stories. illustrated by Frank R. Paul"" 

Right off the bat you've got a crew that is about ready to mutiny as their going beyond the solar system deep into the darkness of the Clark Ashton Smith solar system. There's a lot of the alieniness of this story that we'd see later on in his Hyperborea, Poseidonis & Zothique story cycle.  Especially in  Clark Ashton Smith's  Zothique sequence .

Yet once again we're seeing the fact that mankind is a later comer to the outer reaches of space, there's a sense in "Marooned in Andromeda" that the aliens mutineers encounter are the remains of a long dead alien empire.
The Raul artwork from this issue explains it all really. The mutineers are about to be sacrificed to some ancient alien horror. And these spacers are perfectly made in the PC mode.


There actually is quite a bit going on here and some great stuff for the dungeon master to mine for an old school solar system. The alien pygmies encountered in this story hate humans right off the bat & that lends some interesting weight to something that a friend & I were discussing yesterday. That these aliens might have been servants for Serpent Men, Hyperboreans or other star faring Lovcraftian races. There's a consistency to the worlds of Clark Ashton Smith at we see in other Lovecraft circle writers including Lovecraft himself. The world they describe is 105.5 light years from Earth's solar system and the world is rife for exploration & exploitation by DM's. This is a perfect world for space explorers to adventure on especially those of the Leigh Brackett & C.L. Moore mode. 

 


Parts of this novella I was reminded of  Leigh Brackett's Thralls of the Endless Night & Marooned On Io. Out in the depths of space are the ruins & remains of the Hyperborean empires that have fallen into rot because the interstellar infrastructure has completely disappeared. Mankind is just starting to reach out into the Outer Darkness & there are still things out there.
I'm really reminded of Clark Ashton Smith's The Door Into SaturnThe alien ecology, odd Lovecraftian entities, & the utter remoteness of this little world that almost kills this stories characters. 

There's a feeling here of absolute horror waiting for the captain & his crew later on. This is a basically a beginning level adventure of a science fiction campaign waiting to happen.  Does all of this tie back into my own observations on "Adapting “Outpost on Io” By Leigh Brackett, C.L. Moore's North West Smith To The 'Old Solar System' Campaign Setting" 

Are there other remains within our own solar system where other much earlier races have tread in this C.L. Moore style North West Smith universe? Yes I think so. "Captain Volmar"& his crew of intrepid explorers are the ones who are leaping into the Black Void but its going to be the North West Smiths who exploit it & smuggle around it later on.


"Marooned in Andromeda" is quite short & can easily be read on the Eldritch Dark Website.

Personally I like to dig my claws into the the original Wonder Stories, October 1930, with "Marooned in Andromeda," by Clark Ashton in pdf!
You can download  Wonder Stories, October 1930, with "Marooned in Andromeda," by Clark Ashton Here For Free

Adapting “Outpost on Io” By Leigh Brackett, C.L. Moore's NorthWest Smith To The 'Old Solar System' Campaign Setting

So this holiday weekend I've been spending my time catching up with family & rereading classic sword & planet novellas by Leigh Brackett specifically Outpost On Io by Leigh Brackett. 

Is another of her post Colonial novellas set upon the hell moon of Jupiter, Io where a group of criminals & cut throats slaves away for jovium, an isotope that makes other metals explode. This is another almost but not quite lost outer world setting with a material that's an old school sword & sorcery alchemist's wet dream. This novella's masters & overlords sound exactly like the type of bureaucrats who would work without question for Leigh Brackett's Terran Exploitations Company. The stuff has got to be worth 6000 gold pieces for per gram because of the substance's unique properties. Which brings up the question how did they know the stuff was on Io in the first place?
That's because the true Lovecraftian history of the'Old Solar System is known to a select few among the Earth's interstellar government &  Leigh Brackett's Terran Exploitations Company. Because they're a mining corporation they know the real value of Io. The world was once a Hyperborean weapons development & weapons testing facility. Jovium causes
vibrations of a specific wavelength that break down the molecular bonds in other metals, causing them to liquefy. Its a perfect space borne weapon system able to be delivered to a wide variety of targets.
Io is one step away from Hell in this story where you can die with you boots on or let the planet slowly kill you. The fact is that this makes it a perfect R&D and testing range for a wide variety of super science weapon systems. Much of the life on Io looks like it came straight out of Advanced Dungeons & Dragon's Fiend Folio.
So what's this got to do with C.L. Moore's Northwest Smith? There's plenty of over lap as we see another of the old hold overs from when the Lovecraftian races roamed the solar system.


Outpost on IO appeared in 1942 in Planet Stories, Winter 1942 issue as a part of a great all star pulp line up of talent. In Outpost on Io the human colonists are treading on the coat tales of an older civilization & like the asteriod belt, Jupiter, etc. are going to be depending upon the independent contractor rocket jockeys like Northwest Smith. Ships like Northwest's 'The Maid' are going to be flitting from world to world right under the noses of the Leigh Brackett's Terran Exploitations Company & the Earth government or Terran authorities. This issue of Planet Stories is full of various sword & sorcery or planet races that fit the 'Old Solar' system like a glove. Planet Stories, Winter 1942 is full of the kind of old school pulpy goodness that makes excellent fodder for an old school adventure or campaign one shot.


Planet Stories, Winter 1942  starts out with the Colossus of Chaos is by Nelson S. Bond & this novella contains exactly the sort of space borne weapon of mass destruction that the Hyperboreans of AS&SH would be scared of. Planet of No Return by Wilbur B. Peacock is a novella set on 'Old Venus' and gives a very unhealthy snap shot of that world complete with Hyperborean legacy monsters and more. Spoilers of Space is a salvage novella that comes complete with a Hyperborean crew and more. Doorway to Destruction features a perfect old school Hyperborean weapon by Garrold S. Hatfield. "Peril of the Blue World" by Robert Abernathy is perfect AS&SH fodder with a group of Martians facing down a paladin. The Man from Siykul by Richard Wilson is a typical adventurer finds himself pitted against aliens of the Outer Darkness. Galactic Ghost by Walter Kubilius is another Hyperborean artifact of the space lanes style story and points up some of the dangers of messing with artifacts and relics of bygone ages. Meteor-Men of Mars by Harry Cord and Otis Adelbert Kline perfectly illustrates the danger and alien weirdness of some of the horrors dwelling between the Boreas Winds.
You can read Planet Stories v02n01 (1942 Winter) Here

There's no doubt that Outpost on Io's background seems straight out of Leigh Brackett or a dark dark corner of a Clark Aston Smith novel but many of the ideas are later foreshadowed in C.L. Moore's Northwest Smith stories. The legacy of a solar system much older then the new comer colonists settlements is something we see time and again in the various pulp magazines. Northwest Smith is going to be running all kinds of small and illicit cargoes to and from prison worlds like Io. The gold coins are going to far too much to resist for a smuggler like Northwest Smith but I think its the small antimetal amounts to be smuggled back that part of the temptation.
If the anti metal of Last Outpost on Io got back to Earth unchecked the results could be incredibly dangerous given the metal rich environment of the moon is it possible that Io is in fact home to some variety of AD&D rust monster? It begs the question of the other Gygaxian monsters found in the weird ruins of the novella.

Adapting C.L. Moore's North West Smith Novels & C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner Last Citadel To The 'Old Solar System' Campaign Setting

So last night I took a look at C.L.Moore's North West Smith novellas &  how they relates to my 'Old Solar' system setting. North West Smith is at his heart & soul a rocket jockey whose adventures come from side ventures. So there's a ton of elements that have much in common with pulp Westerns, but when it comes to the planets of the 'Old Solar System' then the role of adventurers comes very clear. These rocket jockeys are the life blood of the 'Old Solar' system ferreting cargoes across the worlds & bringing supplies where & where they're needed. Yet in almost every story & novella Northwest Smith & company seem to down on their luck. The fact is that rocket jockeys are being constantly  squeezed by outfits like Leigh Brackett's Terran Exploitations Company. Mars & the rest of the solar system is an incredibly rich mineral & natural resource playground, these corporations know the 'real history' of the solar system & are taking full advantage of it. Northwest Smith is one rat whose able to move through the walls of the politics, situations & more that have arisen around these events. There have been several mass extinction events that took out the Hyperborean presence in out in the 'Old Solar System'.
Moore's friends Edmond Hamilton & Leigh Brackett used the Lovecraftian history of  these events within their own stories but that's another blog entry entirely.




Northwest Smith's novellas & stories indicate a very different solar system to our own.One where the loss of 'Old Earth' edges toward the fact that the Hyperboreans dealt with a incredible event on a solar system scale event  as best they could. Coping through  planetary terraforming, large scale inter-dimensional planar engineering, & mass population migration into the past as well as the future. There are a number of alternative worlds where the Hypeboreans also set up shop.
  A number of Lovecraftian alien god survivors pop up throughout the Northwest Smith stories. But these are lower tier alien god things that have carved out niches in the histories of the younger races of Martians, Venusians, etc. These god things are those that survived as the younger races have migrated out into the solar system have done so with cults. The younger races have now become the dominant species throughout the system. The old cults carry on as best they can with traces of Hyperborean religious zealots surviving as fringe cults on the edges of the solar system. There are rumors of these in the asteroid belts, colonies on Mars, Venus, etc. Religious cults in some inter colony areas are possibly simply a part of life.
THE NORTHWEST OF EARTH
STORIES ARE HERE



The Terran Exploitations Company from Leigh Brackett's stories & novellas is perfectly aware of the Lovecrafian history of the solar system. They allow many of these fringe elements to go on for the simple fact of exploiting the technologies & situations. As a sprawling corporation with mining interests they know about the exo planetary fossil record. As a faction in a retroclone system they're perfectly aware of the dangers of dimensional travel & time travel as well as how they relate to FTL in the 'old solar system' setting. A good example of the types of weirdness that we see are the Hyperboreans in C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner Last Citadel.


"Earth's Last Citadel is a science fiction novel written by the American husband and wife team of C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner. It was first published in 1943 in the magazine Argosy^[1] and in book form it was published first in 1964"
The accounts of the survivors of the "Earth's Last Citadel" novella are going to have be circulated through the halls of power on Earth for centuries. Its going to point out the dangers of planar & dimensional travel.
"During World War II, four people (two belonging to the Allies, two to the Axis) find a strange vehicle in the Tunisian desert. It whisks them to the far future where the Earth has been conquered and mankind is nearly extinct."
This far future is very much in the style of William Hope Hodgeson's Nightland 

full of all of the usual Dying Earth & Lovecraftian setting motifs that we've come to expect in pulp lost world adventures. This novella is a perfect adventure location for dungeon or ruin exploitation by adventurers. This makes it a perfect location for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.

Earth's Last Citadel by C.L.Moore & Henry Kuttner  is available right here
from was reprinted in the July 1950 edition of Fantastic Novels.

Adapting Shannach - The Last by Leigh Brackett & More To The 'Old Solar System' Campaign Setting

Yesterday I looked at Leigh Brackett's The Jewel of Bas & how it relates to the Old Solar System setting that I've been working on and off for a year now. Partially as an adventure campaign thought exercise & as an actual sandbox play setting. Today I want to re examine Shannach - The Last by Leigh Brackett

What exactly happened to Mercury in The Old Solar System setting? Something similar to what happened across the Old Solar System. The Hyperboreans coped with the destruction of 'Old Earth' as best they could by seeding small minor colonies across the solar system. They tidal locked Mercury, used their super science to terra form it as best they could, seeded it with adaptable life, installed a trans cosmic custodian or small minor race & moved on. They installed a few of their race to oversee the projects and these are some of the factions that PC's might have to deal with. This also a process that they repeated throughout the solar system's asteroid belt & beyond.

Who were these Hyperboreans? Were they a dying race of monstrous overlords? Not quite at all. I think from looking into the stories of Leigh Brackett they were a group of semi religious zealots dealing with the not quite extinction of their belief system. It was really another member of the Lovecraft circle who really added in the creep factor with his Immortals of Mercury. Clark Aston Smith's Immortals of Mercury is a classic and an old favorite of mine.  These Engineer type immortals are in my Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, Hyperborean survivors who have fled to Mercury and cut themselves off from contact with outsiders.  They've got living bio engineered suits worth a cool 70,000 to 80,000 gold pieces in the right markets. Good luck trying to leave because Mercury is bombarded by cosmic storms and its tidally locked.


Mercury is a world of campaign micro settings & its own internal Lovecraftian or Smithian ecologies. Its also one of the most important worlds in the Leigh Brackett solar system. Why? Because its the proving ground for her heroes and it can be for your PC's as well. "Once again its Leigh Brackett who gives this planet a Conan style treatment & its a proving ground for some of the most colorful as well as dangerous characters. "
"In Leigh Brackett's short stories (especially "The Demons of Darkside" (1941), "A World Is Born" (1941), "Cube from Space" (1942), and "Shannach – the Last" (1952)), a tidally locked Mercury features a 'Twilight Belt' exposed to dangerous variations in heat and cold and havoc-wreaking solar storms. Some of Brackett's most colorful characters, like Jaffa Storm ("Shadow Over Mars") and Eric John Stark, were Mercury-born."
Mercury is the proving ground of the strong, the smart, the resourceful, & its a world that creates adventurers, outlaws, & outsiders.



If you're looking at a Mercury that has seen the hand of the ancient Hyperboreans. Its a world where PC's might be looking to carve out their own kingdoms or zonal planetary spheres of influence for a game like Adventurer, Conqeuror, King then your going to be having to import followers, etc. to maintain everything. This is a harsh setting & just the type of place that games like Adventurer, Conqueror, King & Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea talk about using as the focus for an adventure. Every game & adventure element  about Mercury is going to apply to the asteroid belt, the outer Old Solar System worlds, & beyond.  This almost makes the Mercury seem like the colonial penal colony days of Australia or the American West. "On the Mercurian frontier a small group of volunteers, prisoners from the previous war, struggle to make the world habitable to human life. But, there are those who want the planet for themselves. This story originally appeared in Comet magazine, July 1941"

  You Can Download A World Is Born Right Here

This of course is the same style of gambit that players are likely to pull on the DM with Mercury or the minor planetoids in the asteroid belt between Mars & Jupiter. This is fine because it makes perfect sense for an experienced party of adventurers. But their going to have to contend with the factions, monsters, hazards, etc. that they find in these places. But the real question is why were the Hyperboreans hiding? It wasn't simply the extinction of an ancient religious belief system. There's more to it then that. PC's are going to have to contend with the trans cosmic entities that Lovecraft & his circle wrote about. The Outer gods are out there in the void between the Boreas winds and the Outer Darkness waiting for the right moment when the stars are right again. Heavy is the head that wears the crown especially when so many are depending upon basic survival & sanity. The decisions that the king makes effect not only the entire party but perhaps the entire world. The pseudo super science used by the Hyperboreans in the past isn't going to last forever, that means that adventurers are going to be on the hunt for more. This is part of the outlaw & perhaps space pirate angle that one finds so often in these stories, that desparate criminal element that underlies many of Brackett's & Clark Aston Smith's solar system stories. Making this perfect fodder for an "Old Solar System' campaign setting.

There are going to be lots of issues that PC's are going to have to contend with not the least of which is mere survival. PC's who carve out their own trans cosmic domains are going to faced with lots of potential for both adventure & the horrors that await them in the darkness of Mercury.

This post is not an attempt to violate the copyrights or trademarks of any 
of the films nor properties named in this post. All ideas are for a 
private table top rpg campaign. None of the ideas or opinions expressed 
in this post are meant to violate the trademarks nor copy rights of any 
of the table top rpgs discussed nor are they in away responsible for the
 thoughts or opinions of the author. The writing, ideas, and opinions 
are copyrighted and trade marked to the author and Dark Corner 
productions. This post is for entertainment & educational purposes 
only. 

Adapting Leigh Brackett's The Jewel Of Bas To The 'Old Solar System' Campaign Setting

 

Alright its been a long while since I've returned to The Old Solar System campaign setting, but I've been a bit busy & I want to dive right into the deep end of The Jewel of Bas. This is where we get into the Outer Darkness of the micro worlds of the asteroid belt between Jupiter & Mars. The tagline doesn't do this novella justice.
"A quest to the Mountain of Life to save what remained by humanity from the machines that were bent on destroying them." So someplace in the Outer Darkness is a small world lit by super science sun balls and two thieves trying to survive against the backdrop of a small world with a big god. This is the story of a god, his world, people trying to survive against the backdrop of the cosmic. Mouse and her husband are down on their luck thieves who are moving amid the world of Bas. This is one of those stories that points out exactly how PC thieves are going to survive on a world controlled by 40's super science & sorcery.
Everything about this novella is perfect fodder for an old school campaign & its such a great story. There's a bit of everything here from non typical main characters, to interesting fodder for adventure campaign locations, to uses of factions, and a bit of how the semi divine immortal might interact with PC's.

Weird alien worlds, classic sword & sorcery references, memorable characters, and more are found in The Jewel of Bas. Yet unlike other Brackett novellas everything is keyed to the human scale and not the epic. You get a real sense of a quest with the Jewel of Bas set amid the rubble of divinity within a world unto itself. This is a perfect OSR setting for all kinds of weirdness something we'd see much later on in other Brackett efforts.

"The Jewel of Bas" appeared in  Planet Stories, Spring 1944 made quite the splash as it presented something quite different from the usual material. This novella must take place after the Big Jump .

This is when humanity is settled into a number of minor planetoids & has found some of them inhabited by ancient god like beings. There's plenty of super science to loot especially when  the Cochrane family, are willing to pay 10000 to 50,000 gold pieces per relic depending on where, when, and how its found in the Old Solar system. Bas is the sort of a cosmic entity or minor god that Adventurer, Conqueror, King or Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers talks about using as the focus for an adventure. There are several factions vying to take him out and the adventurers are going to have to help stabilize the situation. Their world is going to depend on it and so is their survival. There's also plenty of opportunities for the factions depicted in the novella to have their way with the PC's so they might want to tread carefully.

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD The Jewel Of Bas

by Leigh Brackett HERE

 But what's really going on out there in the Outer Darkness as the Boreas winds blow? Its the Outer gods & their larva that really scares the hell out of the Terra government, the Mars Coalition, & other solar system powers. They've made the big FTL jumps and they've seen what's really out there. The various alien minor Lovecraftian factions don't need humanity awakening any of the greater horrors between the stars. Bas is a very minor player in the grand cosmic scheme. This novella shows the unique place of such beings against the greater backdrop of  Lovecraftian space opera. Hyperborea is unique because its cosmology is both on the ground for Swords & Sorcery and the grand pseudo cosmic that we find in Sword & Planet literature. There are other connections that The Jewel of Bas novella  feeds.

Master of the Asteroid by Clark Aston Smith is a great resource for some of the minor and more benevolent aliens that might lurk among the remains of the Old Solar system.
This story also gives some insights into CAS's Mars and more. The Jewel of Bas offers a unique opportunity for PC's who reach higher levels as they might take the place of the minor godling's place and carve out their own cosmic domain.
Tomorrow we'll be returning to Mars & the inner worlds! Stay Tuned!

This post is not an attempt to violate the copyrights or trademarks of any 
of the films nor properties named in this post. All ideas are for a 
private table top rpg campaign. None of the ideas or opinions expressed 
in this post are meant to violate the trademarks nor copy rights of any 
of the table top rpgs discussed nor are they in away responsible for the
 thoughts or opinions of the author. The writing, ideas, and opinions 
are copyrighted and trade marked to the author and Dark Corner 
productions. This post is for entertainment & educational purposes 
only. 

Adapting Leigh Brackett's The Big Jump & The Free Novella Outpost On Io To The 'Old Solar System' Campaign Setting

Let's talk a bit about beyond 'Old Mars', out there are remains of Ceres, Planet Nine, Planet X, & Phaeton (or Phaëton, less often Phaethon) many of other former planetary bodies now all a part of the asteroid belt.  This is where many of the threads of Clark Aston Smith, Leigh Brackett, & C.L Moore come together. Humanity gets its FTL drive system & a bit more then it bargained for. Arch Comyn is the main protagonist who must find out what happened to his friend Ballantyne who returns as something mostly human from around Bernard's Star.


Wiki has a pretty good break down of the opening plot line;"
The novel begins with the entire Solar System waiting for the news of the first successful interstellar expedition to Barnard's Star, a mission named "The Big Jump". However, only one crewman, Ballantyne, returns, half-dead and with a body so changed he's barely human."



I covered the androids & cybernetic organisms of 'Old Space' yesterday, today I want focus on the efforts of getting into FTL travel with Leigh Brackett's 'The Big Jump' which appeared in the February 1953 issue of Space Stories. The artwork is by far my favorite for this one featuring all of the classic pulp elements including the Bug Eyed Monster, the space man hero, & the buxom blonde. But its not only evocative its also the echos of the dying breed of the pulp magazines. What's interesting is that many of these elements would later on come back with the advent in the Seventies with the release of Star Wars but they never really went away. These same elements came back around in Warren publishing horror comics & magazines.

"What awaits us out in space?

New star-drive engines promise to open up the galaxy to human-kind. But the first ship to use the engines disappears and a sole survivor returns…alone and dying of some strange type of radiation.

No one can figure out what has happened to the ship or the crew. Nor does anyone know what happens to a ship traveling using star-drive technology.

Does some unknown horror await us out there?

The only way to find out is to go out again. And Arch Comyn is determined to be the one to solve the mystery.
But is he, and the rest of mankind, ready for whatever awaits us beyond the Big Jump?"

Within 'The Big Jump', we finally get to meet  the Cochrane family, who have the in-system travel star ship monopoly. These folks are big players in the space ship building & FTL drive business. They're a major corporate faction in terms of every facet of space ship building & planetary government contracts. These are the faction that's going to be playing the long game within every single piece of the Old Mars & Old Venus space game. Nothing moves or is build without their say so. Their the ones who are going to be paying for, buying, & getting their hands on every scrap of data coming in throughout the system. This means that in Adventurer, Conqueror, King terms they're a solar system dynasty that makes Bill Gates look like a chump. They've got ties with the Terra government, the Mars coalitions, & knowledge about all of the alien races within the solar system & beyond. Why? Because they're basically Weyland Yutani for the Old Solar system. These folks are the ones that are going to be calling the shots & getting called on by the Terra government throughout the solar system and they've been doing it for centuries.  They're willing to pay 10000 to 50,000 gold pieces per relic depending on where, when, and how its found in the Old Solar system. Why? Because these folks have been reverse engineering the alien technologies of the Great Race of Yith,The original Martians, the Elder Things, & many others. These folks are perfect examples of the royal dynasty rules from Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg system in action.


But what the hell are they looking for? They're looking for the Outer Gods & god things like them,&  we see exactly how fragile humanity is in the face of journeys through hyperspace. Remember that bit in the film Forbidden Planet where they make the jump to Altair IV and the standing under the rays to adjust their bodies back to our reality? Yeah well we find out the reasons for that in The Big Jump. Anyone attempting such a jump in this era is going to have to save vs poison or have some very nasty effects to deal with. That is except Hyperboreans whose ancestors compensated for dimensional gates & hyper-spacial effects.


But what the hell are they after out there in the universe? We get a clue in the form of "Outpost on Io" where prisoners can die like men or have the planet kill them. An exotic alien isotope makes metals explode and we get a look at the 'Old Solar System' form of Jupiter's moon Io.
Pendleton's quiet voice was grave. "Mars is old and tired and torn with famine. Venus is young, but her courage is undisciplined. Her barbarians aren't suited to mechanized warfare. And Earth . . . ." He sighed. "Perhaps if we hadn't fought so much among ourselves . . . ."

Outpost On Io You Can Download For Free Here

But what does all of this have to do with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea & Warriors of the Red Planet? Plenty, the Lovecraftian races of AS&SH are still operating in Underborea & Hyperborea itself. They've been plundering & moving among the asteroids and various proto worlds of the Asteroid belt for centuries. 'Old Mars ' is a breeding ground for the types of outlaws, wizards, adventurers, and others who use their age old knowledge to move among the belt to secure many treasures, relics, & even bases there. Hyperborea is unique because its cosmology is both on the ground for Swords & Sorcery and the grand pseudo cosmic that we find in Sword & Planet literature. Hyperborea is out among Saturn & its inhabitants are unique in their knowledge of their night sky and what lurks among the dread stars. There might be other space island mini settings like Hyperborea out among the asteroids.


Master of the Asteroid by Clark Aston Smith is a great resource for some of the minor and more benevolent aliens that might lurk among the remains of the Old Solar system.
This story also gives some insights into CAS's Mars and more.


For getting into an old school sword & sorcery campaign with elements of space travel & space craft, I'd go back to one of my favorite science fantasy retroclone sets. Hulks & Horrors which is a 'pay what you want' retroclone mixed with a good dose of Bandits & Battlecruisers which is an OSR rpg kit for science fantasy.
Once again I'd be using Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea as the backbone system and the other science fantasy retroclone supplements.


Tomorrow we'll be returning to Mars & the inner worlds! Stay Tuned!

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