Moe Lane's Blog, page 60
April 5, 2025
04/05/2025 Snippet, In the Halls of the Lily King.
This may work better as this month’s story.
…
In the Halls of the Lily King
Holy Quebec, Republique Imperiale du Canada
(Quebec City, Canada)
2808 AD
The twilight fog tasted of sea and smoke. It didn’t reek of either, or even stink. In fact, it reminded Waylon Salvager of feasts, back home. He wished it didn’t; the cuisine in Holy Quebec had few charms for a proper Kentuckian fighting-man. It’d been years since he’d had a proper barbeque.
It’d been a bit longer since the last time he’d been summoned for a quiet meeting in an alley, only to find a corpse, instead.
He squatted, careful of the half-frozen pool of blood in front of him. The corpse sprawled at his feet wouldn’t be eating, ever again, though from the clothes he’d been the sort who turned up his nose at a smoked mutton shoulder anyway. The gaping throat said how he’d died, but not why…
The breeze shifted.
Waylon instantly turned and drew his shortsword in one smooth motion, keeping his boots out of the blood as his back found the alley wall. He blinked as his other hand complained at his reflexive grab for a belt knife, but he fought down the spike of pain otherwise. It wasn’t important at the moment, and seeing who else was here was.
Patreon!
April 4, 2025
The M3GAN 2.0 trailer.
My eldest is grumbling that M3GAN 2.0 got transformed from horror into a superhero film, but he’s probably gonna have to see it anyway. The cynicism he showed was profound. :sniff: They grow up so fast…
The recent tariff news should *not* affect the Fermi Resolution Worldbook.
I have been keeping track of this, and so has DriveThruRPG. They recently issued an open letter on this subject. Here is the relevant part, at least with regard to this project:
Print on Demand Books + Cards
We strive to work with Lightning Source, our print-on-demand book partner, to keep prices affordable. While we did recently implement a price increase, our print books remain competitively priced and because printing takes place in the US, UK, and Australia, cost increases due to tariffs can be avoided. The price increases to our print-on-demand books are not tied to these tariffs.
I did pick fulfilment via DriveThruRPG specifically because they could handle in-country fulfilment outside the United States, so there’s that. There’s a broad consensus that tariffs won’t be hitting digital products, so I’m not worrying about that until I’m told I have to. As for the physical novel add-ons: they’re limited to American backers anyway because of postage issues. Besides, I’ve already ordered the books.
Bottom line is: the tariffs are not currently a problem that will affect this project. I will let you know if that changes.
Moe Lane
PS: The preorder store is still open, so grab those novels now!
Possibility for the *next* Patreon campaign world.
The Cunning Land on Patreon still has a couple of parts left to do, but it’s never too early to think about it. Here’s what I’m contemplating next. Note that the notes are rough. Also note that it’s obviously Tolkien-inspired, which I should moderate a good bit. And, yeah, it needs a name.
Thoughts for next campaign
It’s fifty years after the death of the Dark Lord. You are from the Shire-equivalent or Bree-equivalent; your people are gingerly resettling the formerly-evil lands.
The Dark Lord was a font of Malice, which kept the land evil. Now that he’s no longer supplying it, it’s much easier to kill something steeped in Malice. Or sacrifice it, to get the Malice inside. There are predators going after things with Malice, getting stronger on it. Then again, killing those does more for the land.
Magic is elemental.
The local religion is monotheistic. The Dark Lord had a dualistic faith, where he was the one winning.
Races
Tallmen: humans. Baseline.
Smallmen: hobbits. Not as strong as Tallmen, but more nimble and hardy.
Elfmen: half-elves, descended from elven soldiers. Magical. Not as ambitious.
Dwarves: …dwarves. Pretty much those, yeah.
Trollkin: orcs/goblins who are no longer in the grip of Malice. Vulnerable to it.
Beastkin: gnolls and beast-men who are no longer in the grip of Malice. Grapples with their intelligence.
April 3, 2025
‘Caledonia.’
Caledonia, Dougie MacLean
#commissionearned
The SUPERMAN sneak peek.
Please, God, don’t let this suck.
The retro-futuristic aesthetic is promising, at least. And quite daring, these days. I mean. BRIGHT COLORS? In a Superman film?
…Please, God, don’t let this suck.
Spent the afternoon on layout edits for the Fermi Resolution Worldbook.
Basically, we were fiddling with the new text for the Fermi Resolution Worldbook (that’s the preorder link) to make it fit on the page properly. Said text are mostly quotes from various people mentioned in the book, including a couple that I wanted to add on my own. We are pretty close to having all the work done! It is most exciting.
Anyway, here’s some of the pithy comments that’ll hopefully be in the final version:
Demons are a Christian thing. That’s why their priests are the best at getting rid of them.
Lucas Coltrane (elvish Adventurer, 2650 era)
Demons are not a ‘Christian thing.’ They are what good Christians must fight.
Fortitude Taneidi (human Great Fleet Chaplain, 27th Century)
Demons die when you stab them. Especially if you call on the Magdalene to help you drive the blade home.
Liza Skullcrusher Lupator (orcish legionnaire, 2835 era)
You gotta be careful. Tons of critters out there got changed by magic. Some got smarter. A lot smarter. The problem is, most critters still can’t talk like we do. You gotta figure it out by how they act… or if they’re wearing hats. Anything wearing a hat isn’t a dumb beast.
Oh, yeah: ‘smart’ doesn’t mean ‘nice.’ A bright critter can be a real mean one.
Nora Alfafor Salvager (halfling scout leader, 30th Century)
The city of Victory has been an excellent long-term investment, paying dividends of both money and information. Indeed, what little we know of half the world comes courtesy of their sea traders. Also: by simply existing, Free Canada prevents the Glorious Union from corsairing its way throughout the Pacific Rim. More cannot be done until the Universal Dominion is no more – yet another reason to win the War.
Miss Serenity Mehrotra (Greater Hershey commercial agent)
Pelgrane Press’s call for playtesters (Boundary of the Darkness).
Thinking about it, thinking about it:
Pelgrane Press seeks playtesters for Boundary of the Darkness, the Trail of Cthulhu sourcebook of dread investigation during England’s age of Enlightenment.
It presents two exciting campaign frames, ripped from the broadsheets of the 1770s:
Via Ken Hite on Facebook. The limiting factor here is time, as in “I have a lot of projects to work on, including my own adventure for the Fermi Resolution Worldbook.” (That’s the preorder link!) I’d like to playtest, but I also like to sleep, and see my kids.
Still… thinking about it, thinking about it.
MULCH!
That was my morning! MULCH!
MULCH! pic.twitter.com/j3qZYEeT1X
— Ogiel (Moe Lane) (@Ogiel23) April 3, 2025
Getting the MULCH! Bringing the MULCH! home! Carrying the MULCH! badly! Spreading the MULCH! Listening to my waist muscles start screaming about all the MULCH! I was carrying! Getting MULCH! in my shoes! Getting MULCH! on my shirt! Taking ibuprofen to take away the sting from the MULCH!
MULCH!
