Moe Lane's Blog, page 85
March 29, 2025
‘Fire and Rain.’
Fire and Rain, James Taylor
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The Three Magical Cities, Part 1 [Fermi Resolution]
So, naturally, I have four.
Grand Moingoana
(formerly Des Moine, Iowa)
The Universal Dominion would contest the above [It’ll make sense in context – ed.], if the Dominion would have ever deigned to notice the comparison at all. Obviously the only Magical City is Grand Moingoana, capital of the Dominion, and all others are mere slaves’ flatteries, children’s imitations. The rest of North America disagrees. Worse for the Dominion, the rest of North America has a point.
The capital of the Dominion is only nominally a city at all, since it has no commerce or industry. Its only purpose is to give Archmages (and the Supreme Archmage) everything that they could possibly want. Even in the last days of the War, Grand Moingoana operates as a self-contained entity, offering luxuries and diversions found nowhere else on the continent, to a steadily shrinking number of mages. Still, even the leaders at the top who know the War to be lost also know that they will not run out of resources before the enemy finally destroys them all. So why not revel until the end?
In the meantime, the mages not being offered a chance to pleasantly throw away their last days are becoming increasingly thoughtful. It is rumored throughout the city that a refugee who makes it all the way south to Grand Panama might actually find sanctuary there, assuming that he has something to buy his way in. Grand Moingoana has always had the greatest (and worst-catalogued) collection of organized magical knowledge in North America, and possibly the world. A collection of the best grimoires will be sufficient for the Grand Panamanians. A second collection of grimoires might actually provide enough bribes to let a fleeing mage get there.
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Also In the Mail: Call of Cthulhu: Arkham (featuring the @HPLHS).
More birthday money! Call of Cthulhu: Arkham was something that I couldn’t quite justify picking up on my own, but Amazon gift cards really do make the best gifts. It also came with some lovely props from the HPL Historical Society, because that is how the HPLHS do. I am very pleased to be a lifetime member of that fine organization, even if I don’t have any creative input with regard to their stuff*.
#commissionearned
*Yes, I agree, they totally should hire me for things.
Book of the Week / In The Mail: Silverlock, Including the Silverlock Companion.
Happy birthday to me!
Although there’s a problem. Silverlock, Including the Silverlock Companion is pretty. In fact, it’s too pretty. I don’t want to actually open it, it’s so pretty and clean. It has glossaries. It has commentary, including by John Myers Myers himself. It has a bibliography. It has sheet music. Let me repeat that, to anyone who cares: IT HAS SHEET MUSIC.
I almost shudder at the thought of using this book. I may end up only reading it while wearing gloves.
#commissionearned
Snippet the Last, LE BETE.
And thank God. I mean, it needs to be smoothed out, but that can be another day.
…
The first sound he heard was the rattling of iron links, endlessly repeating, as the waterwheel outside turned an improvised gear train.The links were heavy, but rusted. Indeed, the smell of rust was heavy in the air, here. As were the smells of pain, fear, and despair. Joseph Fouché was not proud of the circumstances of his life and actions that had left him with such an intimate knowledge of those scents, but the Revolution sometimes required a stern hand from its servants.
As if to mock him, the second sound he heard was keening. The kind of keening that did not come from human throats.
There was enough moonlight from the holes in the roof (and enough dull red glow from the braziers, and their banked coals) to reveal three small figures, each hooded, and bound to a table at wrists, ankles, and waist. And they were small: so slight, you might at first mistake them for human children. But the arms and legs were subtly wrong, and Joseph was instantly certain that if he took off their hoods the heads would be even more inhuman. “What is this?” he hissed, in lieu of invoking a deity he thought wholly imaginary.
“They are fee, Citizen Représentant. Surely you recognize them?”
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March 28, 2025
So, I went to a Korean BBQ / Hot Pot place for my birthday.
The Irish pub looked a bit too packed, so we decided to try one of the five other restaurants in the strip mall. The BBQ place won! I was feeling adventurous.
Good stuff. Good stuff, including the 13% alcohol raspberry bokbunja. Basically, I am feeling no pain and will probably retire early for the evening.
…And God bless us, everyone.
Ben Fleuter’s got a couple of comic anthologies up at his store.
Yes, yes, I need a store. Although what I actually need is a business manager, who can make stores and other things happen. Anyway: Ben’s got some new small-print anthologies up at his store. Check ’em out before they get sold out, and so forth.
Today’s my birthday! Here’s what to get me.
This is a great list, because most of it involves you getting something, too.
Buy my books. Straightforward. You get my books. (Link here.)Buy my gaming material. Just as straightforward. You get my gaming supplements. (Link here.)Preorder my worldbook. A little less straightforward. You get my worldbook, when it’s done. (Link here.)Back my Patreon. About as straightforward as the one above. For a buck you get short stories, RPG material, and microfiction. (Link here.)Sign up for my Substack monthly newsletter. No actual goodies, but it’s a good way to keep track of what I’m doing. (Link here.)Review my books. Also no direct rewards, but the more reviews I get, the more Amazon will show me to people. (Link here.)Buy something on Amazon. It does help, but use this link.Hope this helps!
Moe Lane
PS: If you’ve already done this: thank you.
#commissionearned
March 27, 2025
‘She’s A Mystery To Me.’
She’s A Mystery To Me, Roy Orbison
#commissionearned
