Moe Lane's Blog, page 477
October 21, 2022
10/21/2022 Revisions, GHOSTS ON AN ALIEN WIND: 71900/80000.
Moving along!
Patreon!But not this jail. It had twenty-five individual cells, each with its own comfortable-looking cot and (barred) window, and it all looked very civilized… until I noticed the heavy steel circles embedded in the wall and floors. It didn’t take long for me to find the manacles and fetters in storage, either. Or the tumbrels in the rear alcove, either. Those did smell like death, for all the careful scrubbing.
“Do not look at the symbols on the walls,” came a voice behind me, to my careful lack of panic. I knew it was Oft. Besides, I was already as freaked out as I was going to get. This was such a wholesome-looking murder camp.
“I didn’t see any,” I told him as I turned. And then I blinked, because right now Oft was looking what his church calls ‘fell.’ When you see an Illuvitarian looking like that, he or she’s usually about to smite something — which is another one of their words. It basically means ‘hit it hard, and don’t feel bad.’
“Lucky you,” he said, and there was an undertone in his voice that sounded like deep, well-controlled anger. “The prisoners had time to scratch on the walls. The Scouts regularly scoured the cells, but some runes run too deep to be sanded away. They were left in the wood, and left to spread and rot…”
When you work in the Tomb Worlds, you learn real quick how to tell when somebody’s lost their mental center of gravity for a moment. Clearly, he needed a distraction. “Like I said, Oft, I didn’t see any. I’m not going to look, either.” I laughed, and wondered if it sounded as weak to him as it did to me. “Besides, what’s the point? They’re just going to be a bunch of curse words and pictures of dicks, right?”
Oft grabbed at that last bit like it was a life preserver. “What? Yes. Yes, of course. They were foul scribblings, nothing more. The last messages of flawed and disturbed people.” He gathered himself, visibly coming down from whatever terrible place his head had put him. “So, no need to tarry here, surely?”
“None whatsoever,” I agreed as we walked back to the Anticipant. I didn’t wish that the hauler had a supply of something flammable more than two, three times during the walk, either. And I carefully didn’t think at all about whatever it was that Oft had read.
New @HPLHS DART announced: THE BLACK STONE!
THE BLACK STONE is one of Robert Howard‘s best stories, so I’m happy about that. I’m also happy that the other Howard’s apparently now on the menu, because PIGEONS IN HELL would be perfect for a HPLHS Dark Aventure Radio Theater production. But mostly I’m happy for another DART. I love these. I also have them all, except for MASKS OF NYARLATHOTEP, because I can’t afford it.
You can preorder THE BLACK STONE here.
Now it can be revealed! Coming in December from Dark Adventure Radio Theatre! https://t.co/ctjasisnHL pic.twitter.com/HWZ1maDDuA
— HPLHS (@hplhs) October 21, 2022
#commissionearned
Self-Tweet of the Day, Horrors Must Be Shared edition.
I know, I know: TikTok. Maybe I’ll end up deleting it anyway. Until then, enjoy the deep hurting:
I do not apologize in advance.https://t.co/FH8jg2pZdO
— Ogiel (Moe Lane) (@Ogiel23) October 21, 2022
Ten days left to buy my books in October!
Not gonna lie: I’ve had better sales months (even when I take Fright Reads sales in account). But if you’re looking for new and exciting Christmas gifts, my books would be perfect for that. They’re also a touch underpriced (and likely to become moreso, in this economy, so you’ll do well out of doing good.
#commissionearned
October 20, 2022
10/20/2022 Revisions, GHOSTS ON AN ALIEN WIND: 71200/80000.
We keep going.
Patreon!I’m a subtle lady, so I started off with jerking my chin at the ‘Anticipant’ and saying, “So. What’s her deal?”
“It’s complicated,” he said back, and the Anticipant chuckled. When I looked at her, she smilingly shook her head instead of talking. Oft sighed. “I’m sorry, Pam. I may be trying to be gnomic, but I don’t mean anything by it. Depending on what we find down there, I may not be able to tell you anything about the Anticipant at all. She’s not dangerous, if that helps.”
“I assumed she wasn’t, actually.” I frowned. “I don’t let dangerous people on my ship, unless they’re not dangerous to me.”
“Yes, but how would you know?”
I shrugged. “I’m a good judge of character?” That got me a strangled laugh from the Anticipant, but when I flashed a look at her, there was no smile this time. In fact, she was frowning, like she was trying to think of something. This time, when she shook her head, it was a lot more peremptory.
Oft noticed it, too. “Well,” he said, “now you do know at least one thing about the Anticipant. Whatever it is I’ve brought her along for, she’s obviously not perfect at it. But still very skilled!” he hastened to add, as she gave him a dirty look.
“Right,” I said as I started our descent back into the lower atmosphere. “You’ll let me know when I need to know. If I need to know. Do I want to hope that I don’t?”
“Yes.”
10/20/2022 Snippet, UNHOLY ANGLES.
This one I actually need to think about how it’s going to go (the other two, I just knew from the start). Also, I did not get much sleep last night, and there may or may not be a cold ripping through the house. So yay!
Patreon!Once upon a time there was a couple named Jack and Jill, although they can have other names, if you like. You could say they were Miguel and Maria, or Tyrone and Tiana. Honestly, they could be Ted and Tom and it wouldn’t really matter for this story. Which is sort of the point.
We’ll stick with Jack and Jill, for now. They were young, but not too young to be out on their own; and when we pick up their story, the two were living together in something not unlike bliss, and certainly contentment. The troubles in their lives were not onerous, being either within their ability to correct, or else cope with. Jack and Jill had their health, and even the bloom of youth. If you had asked them if they were happy, they would have said yes, after sneaking a look at each other, just to make sure that the other person agreed with them. Many people on this fallen earth of ours would have happily traded places with them, without even thinking about it.
Only, speaking of fallen earths: the reason we are starting the story here is because it was now a time in their lives when plague stalked the land.
Tweet of the Day, Twitter In A Coal Mine edition.
It was either that, or write: And I looked, and beheld a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Musk, and Unemployment followed with him. Aside from the mild blasphemy involved, it was just too long a title.
Elon Musk planning to cut 75% of Twitter workforce: report https://t.co/cZaAHFjj6d pic.twitter.com/uBIrDQmbV4
— New York Post (@nypost) October 20, 2022
Via @presjpolk.
The GURPS HORROR Bundle of Holding.
Lot of good stuff in this Bundle of Holding, up to and including GURPS Horror (Fourth edition) itself. Steve Jackson Games has gone four editions of that particular sourcebook, and every single one of them was actually justified: the Third Edition in particular had a very interesting campaign setting that had to be cut to make way for stuff in the Fourth edition. Fortunately, they expanded the setting and turned it into GURPS Horror: The Madness Dossier, which is also available in this Bundle of Holding and well worth your time to peruse.
Also, the bibliographies you’ll find in each edition of GURPS Horror are invaluable, particularly if you’re trying to build a library. The only reason I’d argue against buying these in PDFs is because the ones that also have print versions are worth picking up that way.
#commissionearned
Quote of the Day, I Don’t Know If The Venerable Bede Made It Up… edition.
…but it’s still one Heaven of a quote.
The present life of man upon earth, O king, seems to me, in comparison with that time which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the house wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your ealdormen and thegns, while the fire blazes in the midst, and the hall is warmed, but the wintry storms of rain or snow are raging abroad. The sparrow, flying in at one door and immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry tempest; but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, passing from winter into winter again. So this life of man appears for a little while, but of what is to follow or what went before we know nothing at all. If, therefore, this new doctrine tells us something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed.
– Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of England, Chapter 13.
