Worlds Enough and Time: An Urutskan Travel Log-

I was thinking of all of the adventures I can remember gaming on Urutsk, as well as fiction I have written for it, and came up with these locations and time periods:

The Marnharnnan Continent: From the Fall of the Ancients, through the Vrun Colonial period, and the years of play in Latter Autumn, and into the surrealistic dark-fantasy of the Winter Era.

The Vrun Continent: Pre-history, Spring Era, Summer, Autumn, and bits of Winter (7,000 years of history). From the Crystal Pyramid through hunter-gatherers; from the standard fare of 'mediaeval fantasy' through Sci-Fantasy of the war against the Aelbaan; Late Summer and Early Autumn's mass-warfare campaigns, cults, disease and famine; The Humanoid and Frontier Campaigns; the pseudo Napoleonic gatling-gun and cannon period of Consolidation; the rise of the Vrun Continental Authority and highlights of the First Tyrrhean War with its necroborgs and gas-masked cavalry sorties; Latter Autumn's Second Tyrrhean War and the urban malaise of capitulation to the People's Automatic Union; all the way into Winter's madness and desperate subterranean scramble.

The Black Crown / Marnharnnan Yirinn Empire of Bereme Oykh: Autumn and the Departure, and Winter's Discontent.

The Chaos Isles: Scattered incidents throughout Autumn.

Tuliri / Lhoman Border region: Late Summer and throughout the Autumn Era, especially during the Second Tyrrhean War. Hours and hours of miniatures wargaming took place in this region, as well as a religious insurgency on the Tuliri side of the border. Martial Arts action, Pulp adventure involving serpent men, and the rise of an Immortal.

The Durn Continent: Early Autumn's visitation by the contemporary Playtest Party as well as a one-off with a Big Game Hunter, his trusty sidekick, and a powerful Durn Holy Warrior versus Guild Council slavers; Latter Autumn's challenge to modernise, and the Durn Maximist Covenant's polite refusal of the PAU's invitation.

All of the above is but a small percentage of the total gaming done in the milieu, and fails to touch upon the exploration and colonisation of Aqmlk, the Red Planet, and its latter eras; the entire span of the Space Age with its Hyperspace Shunt Network and Dragon Wars; Alien worlds crawling with unspeakable horrors and confounding alien technology; and the actual Sphere of Stars built around the galactic core; and other bits and bobs throughout these past 26+ years of my cultivating this wild and wending garden.

What adventures will you have here?

Mutants of Marnharnna: Pt. 13 ('you took it too seriously...')-

Raylyss, potential Lizard King and Sire of a resurgent Reptilmalian Empire, after finding wonderful magic items, decided to once again torment a drinks girl on the paddlewheel craft, and was spotted by at least two of the crew, one of whom was able to hit Raylyss (with a poisoned blade). Raylyss dove overboard and resurfaced to the rear of the craft, whereupon I rolled to see if security were on the ball, and rolled my 2d12+1d4 for the nearest guard, and scored a double-12 (essentially a critical success) +2 on the d4. This beat Raylyss' (Cloak + Covert) roll, and he was caught by surprise. As in, no action, but I'll let you say something --surprise. Instead, the player indicated Raylyss was moving, and he was fired upon at Point-Blank Range with a pump-action slug-gun. The shot struck Raylyss' abdomen for 45 points, taking him to -20+ instantly. Raylyss' last words (previously spoken as he got away from the mob) were, 'You took it too seriously.'
--Raylyss saw his probability lines toward becoming the messianic sire collapse into silt, while the two spires of his 'children' achieving some lasting importance toward that (or his son achieving it in full with the aid of his sisters) increase. As he expired, Lord Worm, his Elemental Patron, reach out his hand and Raylyss accepted and found himself in the muddy grave of the Silt Court, filled with half-rotted zombies and writhing worm-monsters.
--- The group took his stuff and carted his body to their room, where the the eldest of the girls heard the bad news and sought revenge. She later informed the party that Raylyss' things were their inheritance, and she looked very serious about defending that claim.

The area the party was now travelling through is a series of mangrove stands and islets, cut with channels and coves (much like the area they had just departed), and the soundings were too shallow to proceed after dark, and they anchored as a storm rolled in. In the morning, Kitsune spotted the shredded sails of another craft draped across the mangrove canopy some ways off, and the ship frothed on through the shallows. This wrecked ship was apparently attacked in the early part of the storm by Humanoid sea-raiders (including serpent people), and their floating bodies clogged the way for ship. Gaff-hooking the corpses aboard for scientific study by the Sleeper Scientists resulted in the discovery of strange alchemical gear (explosive-filled distraction weapons like shuriken) and wrist dispensers of an alchemical fuze. Eventually the survivors of the shipwreck (astronomers, botanists, chemists, etc.) were glad to board the pleasure ship and immediately began to drink up and game.

It was upon this ship that the new character was unveiled. He is a heavy spacer-framed Imperial Manifestation with Radiant blood, and lots of it. He was shipwrecked after fleeing the Vrun Continent as a wanted criminal, accused of gross negligence resulting in the loss of 35 lives. He advances as an Aberrant, but is exceptionally robust in his capabilities, and should be a lot of fun in the game.

The next encounter was that of a large boat/small-ship-sized cephalomalian in his river-bisected lagoon, and the living, human contents of three or four lifeboats entwined in his primary tentacles. "Pay tribute or they die." His bellowing, bubbling voice erupted from the frothing water. Everyone was ready to attack it, but the captain, for the sake of those in the boats, capitulated, sending over (as the new character suggested) 300+ pounds of salt-water taffy (most of it conjured fabrications) to the Monstrous Being (along with champagne and other goods) on the backs of rays sent to receive the tribute.
--Devouring the rays and the tribute, the Being was well pleased and released the boats and the humans unharmed. It was later realised that ink from the creature seemed to act as the water-life control agent, as schools of different fish moved in stunning and colourful displays as the ship reversed engines and headed out for deeper waters in the bid to still make it the tidal lake by high tide, full moon in two days.

I believe that we held it there.