The Darkest Cargo - Combining Troll Lords The Starship Warden & Empire of the Petal Throne With Gary Gygax's S3 Expedition To The Barrier Peaks

 

So last night I was messing around with Grey Elf's Classic Edition website, for our Halloween gam, The  Halloween game has been moved because of work scheduling. So let's talk about planar echoes & times from the Starship Warden which have allowed a number of alien races through the gates before they've collapsed. And its actually S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks by Gary Gygax that may hold some of the keys of this dark end of the Warden.

 The recent Goodman Games Classic Reincarnated #3 S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks had some interesting additions to the original module which gave alternative & addition materials. And there's the fact that we have no idea what may have happened aboard the Warden Science spacecraft. But one theory that  recently floated across the table was the fact perhaps ' the Mihalli' of Empire of the Petal Throne rpg fame from Dragon magazine issue #4 may have something to do with the crash into the Barrier Peaks. The Mihalli are ancient aliens who were some of the Human Empires oldest allies; 
"The Mihalli are an ancient nonhuman race which came with humanity to Tekumel — but not with humanity’s knowledge or blessings! When the planet was cut off from interstellar humanspace, the Mihalli, who had set up a small spy post beneath the planet’s surface, were cut off as well and could not return to their original world." 

 The Mihalli are also absolute enemies of the mind flayers one of the alien races aboard the science & ecological vessel of the Warden. These horrors are thought to be the root cause of the crash as the player's PC's try to stop their machinations. 

Illustration by Jeff Dee and used without permission 

Recently while plying through Tekumel.com's forum I came across this post by Master Fulat's form post  regarding his reading of  Phil's Pe Choi essay, relevant sections of which follow; "  Long before Man had stretched out his hands to the stars the Pé Chói had developed space flight and the torque-stress interdimensional drive.

... It was on the advice of the Pé Chói that Man steered away from the deadly worlds of the Hlutrgú, then a localised but ferocious and powerful spacefaring species. They were again instrumental in keeping human ships away from Pelagus (sigma Sagittarii), which was inhabited by a race so dangerous and inimical that no species could approach them with impunity. [who are these inimicable beings???]

I've also found some intersting snippets in the blue room archive. This section on races for instance.
...Humanspace included other citizens as well: the Pe Choi (whose scientific abilities had made intersteller travel feasible), the Ahoggya, who built great, boxy, bumbling merchant ships that bought stuff that other races treated as vile waste; the Shen, whose own fleets ranged far from their home system; the Pachi Lei, Swamp Folk, and Hlaka, whose cultures were smaller and less technological, but who had the capability to take Pe Choi technology and construct their own merchant fleets' the Tinaliya, who were intensely curious but who were so logical that they never developed an aesthetic or spiritual understanding at all. Etc. Still other races may also have existed within this sphere, including some that were hostile to Humankind." 

There question is are there far more deadly beings in the void between places where the Book of Ebon Bindings talks about?! The answer to this is that I believe so.  So are the froggies that we talked about last blog entry & the mind flayers only the tip of the ice berg?! The answer is yes. 

For Troll Lords Starship Warden this means that there may be far more dangerous horrors lurking in the shadows of the ship then even the mutants & cyro passengers release!  Perhaps the only ones who might be answering are the demons spoken of in the 'Book of Ebon Binding' and they may not be talking to the PC's. 

Vile & Horrid - Empire of the Petal Throne's 'The Book of Ebon Bindings' And Kevin Crawford's Worlds Without Number rpg

"Preface: The first part of this book consists of an introduction to the religion of Tsolyanu, its deities and cosmology, plus a brief discussion of its magical arts, the planes of being, and the various creatures which inhabit these latter. The second section of this work then presents a translation of The Book of Ebon Bindings, one of the most complete and detailed texts on the subject of Tsolyani demonology now found in the Five Empires. The introduction is itself a translation from the work of one of the writer's oldest friends and mentors, Tse'mel [roughly = "Cardinal"] Qure'n hiKe'dcolel, High Ritual Priest of the temple of Lord Ksarul at Be"y Su. In response to questions put by various foreign students resident in the Tsolyani capital, Tse'mel Qure'n had kindly summarized the series of lectures which he regularly gives to acolytes entering his priesthood. He has modified this summary somewhat so that it will be suitable for those unfamiliar with Tsolyani mores and beliefs. The writer wishes to extend his thanks to Tse'mel Qure'n, as well as to other friends in the Temple of Lord Ksarul for their kindness, patience, and willingness to explain the intricacies of their faith. The writer is neither a philosopher nor a theologian, and the task has not been an easy one for his Tsolyani colleagues. Particular thanks are due to Mr. Trasune' hiTankolei and Miss Kalusu hiViridame, who joined in the work of translation, corrected the author's errors, and proofread this manuscript..."

Its been many years since 'The Book of Ebon Bindings' has graced my hands, but covering so much Tekumel lately and the Star Ship Warden. I cracked the book today after a long day of being on the road. But all day my thoughts have been occupied by 'The Book of Ebon Bindings'. This is one of the hands down best of the best in universe cosmological &  demonology spell book from Tekumel. And it was written with the idea of use as an in game prop (sorta). 
Skimming through 'The Book of Ebon Bindings' it reminded me of the Worlds Without Number rpg. And the idea of using it to generate a Human Space Empire style world dungeon with scattered pockets of cities scattered across the world setting. 

A 'pay what you want 'post Human Space Empires setting book using 'The Warriors of the Red Planet' retro clone rules is out there called 'Warriors of the Lost Planet' by Brent Slocum available here. 


Dark wizards carving out their own little piece of the Human Space Empire colony worlds or the eroding technological occult landscape of Tekumel puts one in the mind of 'The Book of Ebon Bindings'. The infamous book creating dark cults while our heroes struggle to free the world setting from these dark influences. We know that Kevin Crawford did a rules  light play version of Empire of the Petal Throne back in 2015 available from Tankard's Tavern here called Swords of the Petal Throne.  So its easy to see that the PC's might wake up on such a colony world of the Human Empire. 

Because the Human Space Empire is in tatters these dark forces in the form of cults, dark wizards, demons, & worse are taking full advantage to move into inhabited  interstellar space. They are taking full advantage with little resistance in the outer fringes of the empire. Because of the custom PC generation nature of the Worlds Without Number rpg its easy to create the character you want to play. There's also the fact that using the 'Warriors of the Red Planet' rpg the DM could use the 'sorcerers of the black gate' optional PC class as an occult  faction. 

This plays up to the idea of the agents of Law & Chaos going around closing open planar gateways. This plugs right into some of the occult  premises that 'The Book of Ebon Bindings' talks about. The collapse of the hyperspacial planar gateways allow many beings from outside beyond the threshold of reality to cross over into the reality of the Human Space Empire. 'The Book of Ebon Bindings isn't for rank & file dark wizard. This book of horrid occult knowledge is for only the most accomplished vile dark wizards to handle. The demons listed within are beyond the pale of mankind. And in point of fact remind me to a certain extent to the 21 planes of Hell from Dave Hargrave's Arduin Grimoire first three books.