denizen

In the classic adventure Foxbat steals the Lamp of Aladdin from the Dimension of Confusion, granting him unlimited wishes. He goes onto to wish for ridiculous things like his own island based on the one from Thunderbirds, and then all the money in the world. Eventually the PCs defeat him, but unlike the original ending, instead Doctor Destroyer swoops in and takes the Lamp for himself.

 

Suddenly this silly scenario takes a very dark turn.

 

What does the good Doctor wish for first?

We've seen Book of the Destroyer (Dr. Destroyer), and the Book of the Machine (Mechanon), and now the Book of the Empress (Istvatha V’han). Next logical one should be Book of the Conqueror focusing on Tyrannon. While Mystic World provided a sketch of him, there are still many things that could be written about him.

 

Who's with me? Who else wants to see maps of Thulkos, a history of his battles with stvatha V’han and Skarn, detailed stats on the various races under his rule, and the best part of any (sourcebook)Tyrannon's daily routine?

 

I imagine it would be something like this:

 

Tyrannon does not need to sleep, and has been known to remain awake for decades at a time when he is engaged in the selection, conquest and assimilation of other dimensions. However, a being as mighty as Tyrannon needs to rest of some sort, if only to properly metabolize the immense energies that writhe beneath his skin and dream of future conquests. Tyrannon sleeps with his eyes open, and can awake instantly should he need to.

 

Tyrannon of course also does not require food or drink, and is sustained solely by the magical energies supplied by the billions sacrificed in his name across his dominion. He still has the capacity to eat, and his Emissaries, while under disguise, will do so to maintain their cover. Oddly enough, Tyrannon does still occasionally enjoy the sensation of eating, and his palate is satisfied by the delicacies from a thousand different dimensions that he had conquered. He is also (not surprisingly) fond of the raw flesh of intelligent humanoids (which he considers to be delicious), and has been known to actually devour whole certain worthy opponents or the bodies of sacrifices.

 

Also a brief history of Tyrannon, some of them from the first person. For example, a description of one of his battle with the empire of Istatha V’Han might go something like:

 

The War with Istatha V’Han, The Battle for Nekoya. Ages 315.

 

They had defiantly held against us for months, the Empress had had enough. Their repugnant religion, endless defiance, and the desecration they performed on our fallen had earned them the dreaded Nova Igniter. It would mean the complete end to this contested system.

 

Strangely, when we hurled the Nova Igniter into their star, not one of their ships made a move to stop it; the seemingly archaic sailing galleons with their sails flapping impossibly in the void of space, each one emblazoned with the sigil of their deity: that of three-pointed arrowhead crossed by a crescent.

 

At first we thought they did not realize that their doom was upon them.

 

Then the Nova Bomb struck home, sinking into the crushing pressures of stellar fusion. We cheered, for the end of our now hated enemy was in sight.

 

But the star did not explode in a cleansing nova, scouring space clean of this vile people that lay claim to it.

 

The star shook, it trembled.

 

Then, it glared.

 

The star glared at us.

 

Terrible eyes opened and a maw of flares like teeth opened.

 

And it began to pull us in. Like fish caught in a net, we found our ships being dragged helplessly into that gaping fusion maw.

 

Our captain was quick thinking. Even with our engines at unsafe levels, we could do no more than slow our plunge, but the stellar objects around us seemed unaffected.

 

He ordered us to set course for an asteroid, and to crash into it. We donned our vacuum suits and made ready.

 

The impact was not as terrible as I imagined. I guess that normal control systems cushioned it for us. I was thrown from my feet anyway.

 

The fleet died as one, from what those of us brave enough to peer over the horizon said, the star ate it in a single gulp. Imperial radio frequencies were awash in a terrible burst of static when they died.

 

As for the star, the eyes faded first, but it smiled. Smiled! That terrible crescent grin lingered on for days. It was known as a Viceroy. The one aligned with the element of fire, but we had no way of knowing that at the time.

 

We were forced to shut off our radios, and communicate by touching our helmets together.

 

The air had leaked away, and that terrible, inescapable war chant of those vile people filled every frequency.

 

It overwhelmed our transmitters. We could find no escape from the sourceless, omnipresent chant.

 

TYRANNON! TYRANNON! TYRANNON! TYRANNON! TYRANNON!

 

 

 

 

Re: More Areas for the Genie's Prison.

 

This reminds me of a question I had long ago, which is what happens to a genie if his lamp/ring/whatever link he has to human reality is destroyed. Does he stay in the pocket universe with no means of ever getting out (although if the "prison" is that comfortable why does he want to?)?

That's why magical artifacts are usually made indestructible in most stories.

Re: More Areas for the Genie's Prison.

 

I found Darmondrat's Palace to be very similar to the old Ravenloft Adventure the Forgotten Terror, which in itself was pretty similar to the cell. In that one the PCs are trapped in a gemstone on the pommel of a soul-stealing dagger, which is now a pocket dimension with different "facets" each representing a different part of the dimensional lord's personality or part of his past. Each area also required the PCs to find a particular gem before they could leave each area. I recommend it if you can find it for mining new ideas for the actual adventure.

Seeing the Darmondrat's Palace in Fantasy Hero Battlegrounds has really inspired me, and I was wondering if something further could be done with it. New areas of the Jinn's prison.

 

As a pocket dimension it could be really huge. You could place islands and seas in it if you care to, with the genie running the place as a god. Servants whether real or constructs everywhere, a great palace, fountains of sparkling water and red wine! A flowered garden and palm trees everywhere. A city of servants, an arena, hypodrome, boat races in a purple sea.

 

Maybe the servants of the genie all look familiar--or that there are similarities between classes of servants as if there are several different series of clone slaves with only differences of ages and dress and style. What if the servants are all constructs of all the masters the genie has had over the years?

 

Any other ideas?

Re: Thulkos as a campaign setting.

 

I think I'll begin with detailing the seven Thrones of Tyrannon, what forms they take, which types of worlds they typically manifest on, and how they are worshipped.

 

Maybe the octopod one resides on ocean worlds? The fire one in deserts or in suns? The reptile one in jungle worlds?

 

From there I can work on how each is worshiped and work on the general culture of Thulkos worlds.

 

Back to the topic of Thulkos being sort of grimdark, I'm thinking that many of the aspects of Warhammer 40k could be directly transported to Thulkos, only instead of bolters, his minions probably use magical blunderbusses or crossbows. Instead of starships they use magical sailing vessels. They would still round up people for sacrifice to the Emper...I mean the Tree Throne, maybe using Black Ships?

 

Also I would like to get around to writing out how an actual invasion of a new world or dimension occurs.

 

All these ideas will be collected into a Google Doc which is publicly available here:

 

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfq4bx7q_3508frzh2cc9

Re: Thulkos as a campaign setting.

 

The Kings of Edom definitely lend themselves to a 40K atmosphere, as well, as they'd do a good job of filling the Chaos gods' niche. Which would make Tyrannon equivalent to the Emperor, which isn't that much of a stretch, either. It lines surprisingly well.

Exactly what I was thinking, though I admit I never thought of the Kings of Edom. Tyrannon's followers probably revere the Thousand-Headed God in a similar manner, and both require enormous sacrifices to retain their power. They might even say "By the Great Tree." Tyrannon's main form, the Tree, is pretty stationary as well, just like the God-Emperor.

 

Also the quote in the book about the followers of Tyrannon using magical sailing vessels to travel after receiving the grace of Tyrannon's Avian Throne does sound like another form of navigation in WH40k.

 

I would strongly advise against involving any of Tyrannon's forms in direct conflicts the PCs engage in, even the Emissaries, except in extraordinary circumstances.

Well Emissaries are pretty dumb, so I'm sure those things could be summoned after some great effort by the priests of Tyrannon, especially during a climactic battle against his foe, and being his weakest forms they wouldn't be too much of an imbalance.

 

Fleshing out Thulkos for your own personal use, you might consider adapting the various races and worlds from Hero Games's sci-fi line, including Terran Empire and Alien Wars. For example, the Ackalians or even Xenovores would make terrifying troops for Tyrannon or his rivals. The Velarians, most of them followers of the religion called Scomaru Shaan and the "avatars" of its gods, could be recast as devout worshippers of the Conqueror in his many forms. You'd want recast the technology that some of them use as magic, and eliminate the most powerful weapons, particularly armed starships -- Tyrannon won't give his followers weaponry that approaches his own power.

Thanks for the ideas. I'll look into it, starting with coming up with designs for the revamped technology. You've both been very helpful, and if any more ideas come along let me know.

 

Thanks.

I just love Tyrannon's home dimension of Thulkos and I think it has potential as something more than just the Thousand-Headed God's home dimension from which he can launch attacks on Earth.

 

I'm frustrated with a lack of more detail about it though, so I was thinking of putting together a sort of fan work mapping out the dimension and coming up with ideas of fleshing out the campaign potential.

 

The PCs could play worshippers of Tyrannon, riding magical vessels through space,rooting out rebellion and corruption on distant colonial world strips. They could gather sacrificial victims to feed to Tyrannon and battle the followers to the rogue gods in the distant sections of Thulkos. They could call upon and channel the elemental powers of Tyrannon's Thrones as well as summon Emissaries to fight on their behalf against their foes.

 

Eventually they could be called upon by their god to conquer other dimensions or police those already conquered. In those other dimensions they could encounter the followers of Istvatha V'han and Skarn the Shaper.

 

The possibilities are as limitless as Warhammer 40k.

Infinity Man from Alien Enemies was probably one of the most powerful beings in the old Game with a 250 point Power Pool, and was clearly based on Marvel's Beyonder in that he was a curious god-like being that has assumed human form and wants to understand Good and Evil, Life and Death, Free-Will, Love, etc.

 

In one book it even mentioned that Doctor Destroyer was aware of him, but even he was too afraid to confront him.

 

So I'm new to the latest edition after being a fan of the old edition like 10 years ago. I've been looking through the new books and I see some old familiar faces, some of which now have new names (Malachite the Perfect Man is now Teleios the Perfect Man, for instance).

 

Is there a character that fits the role of the Infinity Man in the new edition, and if so, what book is he in?