9 Portals

PORTAL CRISIS: BOOK OF DOORS eBook for PDF Reader

2012-01-27T04:58:00.000-08:00

Slam through dimensional tears in the fabric of space/ time, and then kick down dungeon doors across the multi-verse. Take down cyborgs, necro-beasts, and sorcerers of insurmountable evil in one game or in a series of stretched out game sessions. This ebook includes complimentary maps, and an appendix for expanding the game beyond the packaged adventure.

Leave the heavy tomes in your closet. Pack your iPad, Kindle ereader, or other ebook reader and get to your game table without haggling through maps, manuals, and folders of character sheets.

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Portal Crisis (PDF/ full color/ $0.50) http://bit.ly/dNRgNM
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Threshaven book one: Kingdom of Gaiasar

2012-01-15T06:04:00.001-08:00

Threshaven

First Edition

THRESHAVEN

Thomas P. Walton

Written for 9portal RPG and rogue gamer advocates!

The Story Behind the Greater Portals of Power

Mount Threshaven is the suspected birthplace of the nine greater portals of power. It is more likely, however, that the gods built this ominous mountain of portals to escape all worlds when temporal technology emerged from super-science, and the gods’ worshippers turned against the ancient race. Either way, the portals in all the realms, of all universes, exist solely because of Mount Threshaven (or so this wizard has divined from many an ancient tome, and devoured knowledge by entreating the stone monoliths on the dark sphere, the Diablocleuse. Having found ancient lore in the chaos computers on Zorbos--where the dwarven berserkers were fool-happy with their find of adamantium—, it was I who hath read through the sinister archives of lost souls!).

Over the eons, Mount Threshaven ceased to overshadow the prehistoric creatures; primitives who huddled around clusters of bon fires, and those who made dwellings of caves or in small huts of mud and twig.

Alas came the day when the primitives fled from their caves, and abandoned their filthy straw homes for safety under the arm of a new lord of the land—a mighty King. Fear of monsters grew from the unearthly undulations rising from deep crevices in the heart of the tribal caverns of the wild folk. Never would they return to those dwellings of rock and earth, where hidden things dwelled, and where goblin enemies lurked, relentlessly raiding and killing the humans’ offspring.

Under the protection of the king, the peoples of Gaiasar grew into civilization. Those remnants of the cave dwelling folk were occasionally seen on the borderlands or the outskirts of the Kingdom. Many cave dwellers were believed to be in league with earth demons; and thus many were slain on sight. Scholars, however, realize the true fear the people see in the primitives—it is a link to their past, a thing civilized man wishes to forget, and the wretches remind them of what they once were before the days of the mighty King from across the sea.

In a thousand years come to pass the great flee from the caves. Adventurers returned the lands of their cave-dwelling ancestors… seeking treasure, of course.

Futharion, king of the planet Gaiasar, hired the sage Malar to venture out to the ancient caverns of Diabiscus, wherein it was long said to house the ancient tunnel of dreams; a place that was - on Gaiasar, but not of Gaiasar.

(It is written by one scholar who had—in his youthful days of adventure—set foot within the dream tunnel, and stepped out upon a field of vibrant light. There before his eyes rose the mountain of the gods, and a great door leading deep into the earth. Gathering his courage, the young adventurer entered the massive doors of Threshaven. When he came inside, he found himself at the foot of massive steps. He climbed, and he labored his way up massive stone steps. Reaching a nexus of doors he entered the one where the light came from. Upon exiting this door, he looked out—and then suddenly down, far down the side of the mountain. It was a different scene than the one he’d seen an hour earlier. Instead of light green fields of luminous rock and weed, the scholar perceived an icy desert. He was further up the mountain than a man could possibly climb in a single day. With great effort, the scholar hid the passage to the dream tunnel, and refused to tell of its location—even under the painful threat of death, and the hours of torture under the King’s dungeons.).

The good king was perplexed by this seemingly simple riddle, but having himself neither an understanding of science or any talent in the arts, he did not bother to fathom its meaning for himself. The King was rich, and hiring those to think on such manners as ancient riddles was not beneath his integrity. And, so it was done.

Malar went about his task of selecting seven of Futharion‘s strongest diggers for the purpose of unearthing the ancient entrance to enchanted places wherein men were not meant by the gods to see.

Upon the hour of their mark, setting down the flag of their lord and king Futharion in the soil of their ancestral caverns, a grim reception awaited them.

Tiers of metal rose high into the hidden shafts of an adjacent chamber, where upon each level hung ornaments of sinister and macabre decor. Alcoves lined the concave interior of the cavernous realm. Upon these many shelves lay the preserved skulls of humans--some being horribly molested. Malar would have guessed that his ancestors hand practiced a rather odd form of burial rites if it were not for the way in which the remnants of ancient Gaiasar were arranged in these odd vessels of transparent material.

Most of the skulls were preserved well, save for a few of the transparent containers having been cracked or destroyed altogether. Screws and prongs protruded from the skulls, as if the ancestors had been brutally disfigured and then carefully restored by the fastening of bolts and metals of exceptionally fine material. This conjecture proved to be more probable upon Malar‘s next find in a chamber running deeper into the darkness.

They found the secret entrance to the dungeon by following the series of cords running from the bolts and containers of the skulls to a crevice in the floor. It was here that the party became aware of undulations in an ancient language rising from depths of darkness. It took all of their courage, and the promise of treasure to drive the party of miners, diggers, and scholars into the next chamber where the great dungeon entrance lay in an obscured design far more primeval and primitive than the constructs in the first subterranean chambers.

After a lengthy and laborious dig, the earth gave in, and the entrance to the lower realms yawned widely before the scholars and workmen.

None of the men would enter the dungeon corridor, and so it was with great perseverance that Malar managed to take the first step into that lost world of melancholy. The other men lowered Malar into the ancient gap with rope and pulleys. A time of uncertainty passed before Malar touched with both feet on the tiled floor many tens of feet below. It seemed to him that voices called out his name, and the names of other members of his party. They even seemed to speak the name of the king, and of kings long before him.

As soon as Malar had arrived, the terrifying undulations ceased altogether. This sudden discomforting quiet nearly stopped Malar’s own heart cold.

Striking a post and banner of the king into the tile floor took some time doing, but it was task for the common diggers--who were more than willing to stay behind a while longer to perform the ceremonial rite in honor of the lord of the land.

Malar was at the head of the smaller band of specialists. He was flanked by his pupil, Alfonso, who scribbled notes when they afforded him time to draw his ink and quill from a case rolled in elegant layers of silk (a gift from the king, and a reassurance for the king that all findings would be dutifully noted).

Additionally, the elder sage brought with him two scholars; Marcus of Carrib, and Noor of Figgs. A warrior who gave only his first name as D‘mede walked alongside Malar. D‘mede, a dark skinned man of great physical strength, came to Gaiasar by way of the barren dessert to the far east. He had an array of knowledge regarding caves and subterranian caverns, which made him a good selection for the campaign. D‘mede wore a curved sword he called a scimitar, and a nearly identically marked sword of greater thickness, nearly an axe blade, for which he remarked was for cleaving only. For the narrow passages he slung the heavier blade over his back. Alfonso, having curiousity, asked about the crafting of the heavier blade, and learned its proper name to be a falchion. Aside from the darkman‘s prized sabers, D‘mede carried three concealed daggers, a throwing knife, and a brass vessel on his sash. His vest inner pocket concealed an ornamental device with a small wick or fuse, a barrowed end, and curved handle. Malar hadn‘t the foggiest what Alfonso found so interesting about the warrior‘s weaponry. In short words, Malar ushered them onward, and reminded them to watch their step, and to keep an eye to the side, and to mind their other senses, and so on.

The corridor stretched endlessly for such a length that the party grew anxious to get out of it. Yet, Malar advised his team to keep mindful of their footing, and not to exceed their pace. We must arrive at the end with some strength for investigation, or so he anticipated there would be an answer for the curiosities they discovered in the previous chambers above.

Decorations and signs along the corridor were difficult to read, since most of the engravings were very high along the corridor walls. They were crude engravings, even for the artisanry of primitive man.

Alas when they had reached the end of the corridor the party came upon a great stone door. D’mede gave Malar a pair of hands to hoist the elder sage high enough to read the plaque on the door. Alfonso handed the torch to the elder Malar so that he could have more light by which to read the plaque.

Clearing the cobwebs, Malar read aloud the engraved plaque, “Lord Trull“. No one could place the name in any page history, nor had there been a common language like their own so long ago. Judging by the craftmship of the door--its machine cut panels, the quality engraving of the plaque to lord Trull, the cast which must have made the solid handle--Malar decided that this door was the work of fairly recent years, despite the cobwebs. The one thing that Malar could not account for was the earth which had covered the great under halls which--Alfonso had noted the corridor step by step, inch by inch--stretched literally over three hours by way of foot. D’mede offered that perhaps the passage had not been used, and this door left only as a marker for this hidden realm. Malar sniffed audibly. He offered no argument.

At length they tried the door. It wouldn‘t budge. Malar and Alfonso pressed against the door with shoulder. Put your back into young scholar; the secrets of the universe are afoot! D‘mede suggested that they try the handle first. Perhaps the door swings only outward. He reasoned that this door was unlikely an entrance, but rather a secret exit of some kind.

Malar tried the handle. The warrior was right. The door did not open fully, but the resistance was less if Malar pulled upon it. The rattling of a bolted chain on the opposite side confirmed that the door was barred from within. Still, Malar found it to be an odd fashion for a door within such a grand hall to not open inward.

As the three men headed back to fetch the diggers, Alfonso offered along the way that if the door was indeed an exit, then perhaps the hall itself was of an older civilization altogether; barricaded on the other side of time.

PART TWO

Alfonso left Malar’s campaign as instructed, carrying with him maps (which you will see in the appendix of this tome), a journal, and the seal pressed leaflet of Malar, to the King. Alfonaso made his journey with all haste.

It is the last record given of any word from Malar. What it was that Malar and Alfonso uncovered is subject for the scrutiny of historians of our universities. The only thing which remains clear is that Alfonso did return to the elder mountains; that he did record such things as he saw or imagined them, that Malar’s party never returned to Gaiasar; and that at length Alfonso fled the company of the king when a reconnaissance party was being called to the audience of the king.

The King Futharion left no written records—himself being no scholar and renowned as an impatient ruler. What is left to us by the good king is a record log of all he owned and operated in the land of Gaiasar.

THE DESTRUCTION OF GAIASAR

Revenue fell under the heavy expenses of Heir Othelan, Lord and King of Gaiasar. Othelan’s father, Futharion, had passed away without ever knowing the secret of the hidden realms within the mountain, nor of the findings of the excavation team, nor of the return of the reconnaissance party. Othelon kept a diary, being more patient with literature and writing than his father. And when Futharion passed on from this world, he was given the ritual of elder kings, but it was a rushed and dressed event. Othelan had heard that rumor of which he was too eager to take up his father’s seat in the great halls of Gaiasar. Yet, such was often the rumor of the peasantry. As grand, but as quickly as the funeral had been, Othelon wrote only of Threshaven. Some excused the young King’s obsession with the wicked mountain of the gods, saying that the good king ‘felt his father’s wound from the failure of the initial expeditions’, and that he only wanted to ‘succeed in putting his father’s spirit to rest’. And this latter rumor is the one which Othelon encouraged; that not only his father’s soul could not rest, but that the people of Gaiasar would not rest until Threshaven was discovered. So it was that the people of Gaiasar felt a wound in their own pride, and took up the call to serve King Othelon the best that they could.

Truth be told—most of the people of Gaiasar would have happily forgotten Threshaven, and simply let the mysterious under halls of those mountains fade from memory. But they could not forget, for their very economic state was at the fault of their king’s obsession with the god mountain. Over time this detachment of the king from his people lead the kingdom into disharmony.

Scanning through the journals of Othelon we come at length to passages which finally return the eye of the king back upon his people. At length the kingdom of Gaiasar was overrun by mutany—which shamefully evolved into complete anarchy.

During this time of great revolution, and terrible anarchy, the hordes swooped down from their chariots in the sky and beasts upon which they rode. The evil armies fell their mechanical monstrosities upon the kingdom of Gaiasar.

Having no kingdom, no army, and only a corpse of a king--Othelon having been slain by his own hand and bodyguard--, the people of Gaiasar were prone to the attacks of the mountain ogres; huge cybernetically enhanced cousins of the giant races. With them came the trolls, and at their flank orcs carried the banner of Lord Trul.

Remaining in the mountain halls were the tribal goblinoids, but of a mechanically and cybernetically augmented race such as never seen before in the realm of Gaiasar.

Humanity in majority were reserved for entertainment in the fighting pits, or kept in livestock pins for Lord Trul’s consumption. Humanity, however, would emerge from the doldrums a transformed species with the aid of a new ally.

Word reached the ears of the evil dwarves of Salamandar Canyon, hearing humanity’s call for aid. A handful of barbarians from the north joined the refugees of Gaiasar on a quest to save the remnants of the humans enslaved by Trul. These would-be warriors no doubt made a bold stand, having the protection of their new barbarous escort. But when they cam to Salamandar Canyon, which was named Salsmandrei by the dwarves who dwelt there wherein the earth breathes fumes and flames from porous caverns, humanity died for the second time on Gaiasar.

Alas, to better understand their terrible fate, and of my people of the Gaiasar, one must imagine the circumstances of the time, for we are a cursed species who hold the front at Gaiasar against an unfathomable foe of such evil—an evil greater than the one which allows us all to live and breathe as we do now.

I return your attention now to the overthrown Gaiasar…

THE REIGN OF LORD TRUL

Lord Trul is a monster beyond most Gaiasarians’ imaginings. Standing at nearly fifteen feet in height, a giant troll crushed the throne of Gaiasar as he attempted to sit his bulk of cybernetic torso and robotic limbs into the seat of the dead king of Gaiasar.

He named himself lord Trul. Cyborg ogres served him as body guards. Dark gnomes labored on strcuting lord Trul’s factory and other technologies more advanced than our ancestor’s could have fathomed. Lord Trul himself was literate, and he could speak common Gaiasarian with some difficulty. His minions devised for him larger variants of the new super technology they stole from some distant civilization among the stars, making it into weaponry for the giant ruler to wield in combat—or in sport. His power seemed limitless.

Our remnants of humanity lived half lives in slave pens, wherein they breed and multiplied, and gave themselves as food to lord Trul and his minions.

THE DARK HOPE

The evil dwarves of Salamandar Canyon agreed to side with the barbarians and the refugee humans against lord Trul, but on one condition… Gaiasarians would unite their kingdom with the Salamandarians, and sacrifice a first son from every newly wed of Gaiasar who bore any sons.

So it was done. A pact was formed between barbarian—what was now the only true free human—and the evil dwarves of Salamandrei, who were thereafter known as the Salamandars.

The Salamanders showed my people to the secret of the elder mountain—a place we had long avoided since our defeated Gaiasar.

THERE at the deepest, and the utmost darkest depths of the canyons did we approach the foot of a strange mountain. At its base rose steps up through the darkness, where phosphorescent moss covered the sculpted steps. It was easy to follow the low-light glow of the stones up to a loft, wherein was an alcove.

Reaching the alcove was the easy task. It was fulfilling our oath to traverse the great unknown which was daunting. At length we arrived at the metal door within the stone wall. It was as if some alien craft had smashed into the mountain, and that the earth had burred all but the door leading… somewhere within… within some ‘thing’.

Mount Threshaven lay awaiting us on the other side of that metal door. It was an other-worldly place where the doors of the universe awaken and open for the one who calls them by their names, knowing when to speak, and the manner, and the hour, and so on.

We stepped through that metal portal as humans, beaten and defeated. But we emerged as the mechanical things we are now.

PART THREE

RISE OF THE MECHA

I was selected to remain behind my fellow humans. It was not to be made known to our contractors, the evil Salamandars, of this final decision. Yet, it was necessary to breach our agreement in secret, so as to retain any small remaining piece of what we once were. I was to note our history should the brave men and women who entered that door of space/ time emerge without their full capacity, or if they were not to return at all—if we had been lied to.

The last of free Gaiasarians entered the metal portal. I could not bare to look, upon their grim faces, especially the young warriors. Yet I could not tear my gaze from them as they dragged their hopeless bodies beyond the portal threshold of that evil forging of alien metal.

My passing hours were in places somewhere between sleep and wake. I could not remember at times why I was waiting in that forever twilight grove of glowing moss and rock slime. Then, as I wearily turned my head to see around me, my eyes came once again upon the metal door.

My thoughts fluttered like the wings of a butterfly. I began to wonder if anything I recalled had actually happened. I saw nothing of the dwarves—but I felt that they were certainly below in the deeper darkness.

As with something of a sigh, a portal yawned in the empty space before the door of metal. Out from it came men or machines which resembled men. Those who emerged from the arch were temporarily surrounded by a surge of electrical energy, and then immediately their feet transformed from metal hooves into treaded boots; seemingly adjusting form for the terrain under the mountain.

After the passing of energy clouds I deemed it safe enough to stand, so as to better observe the group of machine-men. They regarded simultaneously, and just the same way ignored my presence—as if in unison they’d silently agreed that I was not a threat. Yet, I recognized their faces. They were the last of Gaiasar; those brave and grim faces who once walked through the metal door as the last of humanity’s warriors.

The men and women who stood upon the loft of the mountain were fearless bodies, as opposed to those who had first set in to that door of strange time. It was the familiar face of our captain, Furiak, who I managed to catch attention. His face regarded me coldly, as if he did not recognize me. I asked him if he remembered his name. He made no answer. None answered. When at last I pondered aloud would ‘Gaiasar be saved?’, it was then that the men and women of metal bodies turned to me.

“Take us to Gaiasar” the mechanical Furiak reverberated from some metallic disc in his throat. “WE GO TO GAIASAR” the others fell in.

((End of fragment from anonymous))

CURTAINS FOR LORD TRUL

The mecha campaign poured over the devil palace of lord Trul, in small numbers at first, primarily on a reconnaissance mission. Taking humans from the slave pens, the mechanical men bore the men away to Salamander Canyon, where they offered up the first born or the eldest son. They then proceeded to mount Threshaven by means of the secret passage revealed to them by the dwarves.

More machines emerged as full battle-ready cyborg commandos. Women who were taken did not return to Gaiasar, but remained in an alien world where their bodies were merged with different machines for purposes unknown to the borg and human alike.

Gaiasar never became as it once was long ago with all its glory and beautiful gardens and glistening towers, although the remnant humans were grateful to the machine-men and their great sacrifice for Gaiasar.

Lord Trul was gone. And that is all that any human of Gaiasar cared about. They were free!

PART FOUR

THE NECROCRACY

IN the midst of building our wondrous new land, and freedom for all men and women who were elected (or perhaps rejected by the machine-men) remained human in Gaiasar, the dark dwarves disappeared from the lands. The Salamandar Canyon fell through the earth in a grand catastrophic event, a spectacle of electromagnetic waves and pulses rippled across the planet, shaking the foundations of Gaiasar.

The surviving dwarves departed from the land of men, seeking refuge in their haunted mountains.

As scholars and techno wizards uncovered hidden aspects of the portals, a new prestige class emerged from the arcane school of Talos, a land claiming the peninsula of Gaiasar’s southern border with the wild lands.

In Talos, the monks of various disciplines lived simple lives, and the mages of Talos shared knowledge in exchange for barley, tea, butter, and other monastery harvests and goods. This relationship between Talos mages and the good monks of various divinities made Talos too independent to be of honor to Gaiasar’s new and self-proclaimed emperor, Konrad Veximus.

Alas the portal technology of the machine men waned without the power glyphs of the portal wizards, who mapped the cosmos. And use of the portals of mount Threshaven became impossible without the diviners of Talos; as the great halls of mount Threshaven were in a constant state of flux, and were given to change location without foretelling. The machine-men remained ignorant of any technological means for calculating the routes of the portals, and could not quantify the portals by any means logical.

And so it was that the peace between free-living mages of Talos and the lawful abiders of Gaiasar’s emperor Veximus lasted for centuries.

Then came forth from Threshaven a most terrifying portal; one yet to be discovered by the mages of Talos. It smelled of decay, wreathed of fumes from dead orgone exposed bodies, and gave off no light other than a sickly pale luminescence like a submarine light scarcely breaking the surface of muddy waters in a swamp.

It is a dark day upon which the necromancers of D’hern took up residence in the free towns of Talos. They dwelled in their own series of dark towers further south from the other temples. They eventually seeped into every nook and cranny of the grand city that had replaced the kingdom of Gaiasar centuries ago. The D’hern renowned for their technology, wisdom, and vast knowledge of the realms beyond Threshaven, were welcome by emperor Veximus; who secretly plotted on laying siege over the mountain of Threshaven, and enforcing taxes upon the free towns of Talos.

Dark siddhis surrounded the D’hern, setting them apart from the respectable intellects of Talos. Once, perhaps, some unfathomable eons ago, the D’hern were more like other men. The citizens of Gaiasar and Talos did not share closed-quarters with a necro—what laymen call the sorcerers of the D’hern; and rightfully so, for they were indeed necromancers of the blackest sort.

D’hern resembled men, but had additional limbs like tentacles, and some rather unusual augmentations—commonly noisome breathing apparatus, which some claimed was necessary after their adjustment to different atmospheres in other worlds. There were also those necros who took to the air, but not elegantly as the bird. It was a ghastly sight to behold creatures—for certainly they could not be true men—take to air like wraiths on blackened wings, or others still, those necros which traveled within whirling vortices of gaseous clouds, spinning them off into the void. Those with multiple limbs and tentacles claimed that such transformations were the natural outcome of evolution—and that, furthermore, such limbs allowed for the D’hern to perform ultimate magic (a magic greater than high magic), consisting of rituals beyond the knowledge of the elder mages of Talos. And it was this claim that had the elder mages on guard.

Of all the times recounted by the great Emperor Conrad Veximus, he could not recall from record or memory storage any time in which graves sprouted up here and there, and spread across the flourishing lands of Gaiasar faster than their harvests of food and power crystals.

In time, the machine-men of the hive mind began to fall to unforeseen ill fates, such as diseases which had not existed prior to the arrival of their necromancer neighbors. All machine-men were assumed to be immune to the illnesses of the flesh, despite their fleshy counterparts merged within the machine body.

Accusations certainly were weak at the start, but took on some added strength as the portal wizards developed new devices and mecha for the craft of war. Their hidden prize, the telepad, was a device which could be placed as a beacon any location within a preset range (x number of spans). When a portal wizard stood upon a teleport panel, he would then materialize to the telepad in the blink of an eye.

Telepads would revolutionize portal technology in years to come, as no ritual was needed to use them, and aligning the entrance port with the exit panel was more convenient than using a traditional magic portal.

The problem was that necro elites had developed their own portal technology, and long before the ancestors of the portal wizards had crossed that threshold of the elder mountains in their trek for wisdom.

Worst of all, the D’hern did not share knowledge of their portal technology with anyone outside of their clan—not even with the emperor Veximus.

UNAVOIDABLE MEANS

The unavoidable day finally came, when men had to face their destiny in Gaiasar. That destiny, as a matter of course, was entirely subject to the wisdom of Conrad Veximus, Emperor of Gaiasar, and eldest of all cyborgs on Gaiasar. It was rumored that Veximus was older than any cyborg beyond the metal portal as well.

No cyborg doubted Emperor Veximus; though human counterparts living in Gaiasar’s city-state had more freedom in their lifestyles, as they were not entirely subject to the hive-mind conditioning of the metal-men.

Never-the-less, Conrad Veximus was emperor, and as emperor his word was the law.

Thus, when the rise of zombies became a daily concern for the metal-police, Emperor Veximus realized the frailty of his fleshy counterparts; the human sectors of Gaiasar’s hive cities. This ‘weakeness’, as the emperor apparently saw it, of non-converted humans, would only add to the growing number of zombie infestations.

The word of the law rang out to the citizens of Gaiasar all prematurely—for Conrad Veximus had been all too machine-like in his rule, forgetting what it once was to have clung to mortality, and of the loss of those material pleasures the Gaiasarians so loved.

In no time sooner than the order had come for all males of age to report to the hive coordinator for metal body conversion, did the populous cringe and revolt. The wiser humans simply found a convenient opportunity to flee to Talos.

The child-mind or machine mind of Veximus was surprised at the refusal of his human citizens to convert to machine men upon his instruction. His word was the law, so Veximus reflected. It made little sense for anyone to refute his ancient wisdom.

Long protected and sheepish were the average humans of Veximus’ rule in Gaiasar. Few, however, did see the nobility and wisdom in converting to full metal machine-men. After all, it was the machine-men who had saved their people from certain destruction. It was their great leader Veximus who had pulled the weak and miserable humans up from the dunghill.

Still, the majority of people attempted to flee. Many became refugees seeking exemption from the law. Talos was after all the one place where the word of Emperor Conrad Veximus had no authority.

While the hive-mind set out upon its task of quarantining the remaining citizenry, a series of conversion matching (the right body for the right genetics) ensued the processing of human escapees.

Elsewhere, war erupted. Many humans fell to the might of Veximus and his cyborgs. Talos was at a potential advantage, however, with their greater use of telepads, giving them swift movement across the cities and surrounding wilderness.

Veximus was not of Gaiasar, and he had fought enough battles beyond the boundaries of Mount Threshaven. It was simple child’s play for Gaiasarians to contest with his metal warriors.

The emperor’s first counter against the rebellion of Talos was to quickly take out all operational teleporters and telepads, thereby rendering the portal wizards immobile on the battlefield.

Supplies had run incredibly low for the portal wizards, and for those refugees nested in Talos’ fortress and keep. The wizards had to accept that their position was now the reverse, and that the opposing force of Veximus held the advantage.

“The advantage, however, is merely a tactical advantage,” the eldest wizard, Wendelin, encouraged his pupils. The wizards looked confused.

Setting down a long curved pipe, Wendelin drew a circle in the air. “We’re besieged. This is true. The emperor, however, will not move from his position. He expects us to surrender when our supplies have been utterly spent.”

A younger pupil raised his hand, and nodding his head in the tradition of Talos wizards to show respect for the wisdom of others, spoke the question on his mind. “Master Wendelin’s observation is true. But now I wonder, what would our—are we to move against the emperor then?”

No one moved. No one spoke.

“Our advantage, I simply point out, is that Veximus will wait for our move,” the elder answered after an interval of silence.

The wizards contemplated whether or not they could prolong their rations by means of meditation, altered states of consciousness, and—well, then that’s when a really bad situation turned into a complete nightmare!

Necromancers from the surrounding lands who had conveniently emptied the cities before Veximus’ manhunt had been conceived finally returned to Talos. With them a hideous new machine reared its ugly head at the fortress of Talos, and at the legion of cyborg warriors who encompassed it.

The machine rolled its arch on wheels up to a bridge of Talos peninsula.

With a loud crash their landed the giant doors upon the bare earth. Others landed in the paved roads, cracking the foundations of adjacent buildings. Black veins grew into the earth surrounding the base of each portal.

Wendelin threw open the window of his high tower. Reluctantly, his pupils gathered behind him, but Wendelin knew that Veximus would not open fire upon the tower. Instead, he beheld nine great constructs planted into the ground like giant shards of metal, bone, fire, ice—and still other materials which he’d know knowledge of their origin or making.

The portals formed a perfect arch around the city and the battlefield. It was a powerful technology indeed which Wendelin perceived.

Nine portals opened from within each shard of mirror, metal, bone, and other materials which comprised the towering constructs surrounding the besieged who were now trapped with those who had besieged them.

From the portals poured out the worst of the nine realms. It was a kind of undead beast, and yet cybernetically enhanced. A variety of necro borgs spread out across Talos.

The necro borgs were invulnerable to all weapons that the metal men fired upon them. Very soon there were metal warriors being pulled into the dark depths of the necroverse through the portals.

The D’hern borg were immune to most attacks, save one—the portal projector.

In minutes the battle field lit up like a storm of portals tearing apart the ground, pulling at the black archs of the necro gates.

Men and machine, necros and Talosians, and all living things of Gaiasar fell into the temporal storm of wormholes upon the battlefield.

Antigravity charges were fired, vaporizing some of the necro borgs, but also many of the Gaiasarians and Talosians. Warriors of Talos were pulled right out of their armor in a flash of lightening, and swallowed in a thunderous whirlwind of dimensions.

The emperor was perplexed. For although ancient Conrad Veximus had fought many battles in the dimensions beyond the metal portal, he was not entirely accustomed to battlefield warfare as the ancestors of the people of Gaiasar and Talos once were.

Most of the converts had lost their human spirit in the great communion with the hive-mind on the other side of the metal portal. Yet, as these machine-men had grown to love Gaiasar, their human spirit rekindled deep within the vessel of their metallic torsos.

Independent thought crept back in to some of the machine men. The essential human spirit or soul was the weapon most needed in Gaiasar’s final hour, on this battlefield. The wise fled where the men of metal had fallen from their posts surrounding the fortress. All Gaiasar had left was its last technological weapon, its doomsday vorpal machine—the portal projector. Gaiasar was a broken society, a broken spirit.

As wormholes collided with the nine necro portals, a new phenomenon occurred before the eyes of the wise tower of Talos.

The ground broke beneath the foundation of the city. Overhead, the sky swirled into a maze of eddies. All seasons struck the earth at once, like a bolt of energy from both polarities of the cosmos; fire and ice devastated all that could be seen.

Hail fired down from the heavens like a gunship projecting many torpedoes. Dimensional doors opened and closed frantically, causing the fabric of Talos to shred into pieces.

Most of the country of Gaiasar broke into islets. Sailing away into a colossal cyclone of space/ time, ice, and fire.

This war marked the first appearance of a smash portal upon Gaiasar, and brought with it most of Talos—taking all, living or otherwise, into the firmament of the smash-verse (a universe existing between the absolute void of chaos and the realms of order).

FRAGMENT OF THE SURVIVER

Chaos was all around me. I flicked the switch on my mechanical staff, and before my feet weaved in and out of existence the prototype for our first chaos beacon. It was worth a try, and did save my life. As the world around me scattered into oblivion, and as my beloved Talos fell upward into the smash portal, I found myself drawn into the air above. Time seemed to flux, and my mind could not manage the linear direction of my thoughts. Even my mind scattered into the ether.

The only thing which saved my life was an unconscious twitch of my thumb against the device in my hand, the rod and scepter of cosmic power. And quite suddenly I found myself back on the ground.

I was on the ground with the chaos beacon under my boots. But, I looked upward expecting to see the great portal and the ruins of Talos, for which I saw neither. Rather, before me lay vast lands of blackness and bone-cobbled paths. Indeed I stood upon the beacon, but I did not stand on Gaiasar!

I made my way through the grim lands of the necroverse with caution, for I gathered that this must be the place where I had fallen.

Each step was a brand new menace to my prowess, for the earth was filthily riddled with bones which crunched audibly under every footstep, or tripped me along my path.

In the darkness I pondered my escape from the cyborgs and the D’hern. Was it luck?—fate? Certainly, the chaos beacon had saved my life, but even the chaos teleportation technology is apparently unable to escape the powerful smash portal. Two universes collided, and I found myself pulled into this one.

ESCAPE

Multiple realms were visible from where I dared to climb and look upon the scrap yard blight of impenetrable darkness. I stood aloft a mountain of skulls and heaps of metallic junk; war mecha of other times, ancient weapons, relics from alien worlds all in one big mound beneath me.

My left foot broke through the skull of an ogre or some giant creature. And my right pressed upon the chest of a long dead cyborg—the face still attached to the neck and torso seemed hauntingly familiar.

Realms of fire were on the horizon, which seemed to be the only beacon of light in this side of the necro-world. Worlds of ice drifted on the empty spaces of the black vault of the cosmos.

Without warning, fluids poured over my helmet. Looking up, I beheld a life-filled aquatic realm looming overhead like a still-life sculpture; but life was in it.

Translucent beasts swam within airborne seas. Flying creatures dived into deep oceans of stardust. Eddies popped in and out of existence along streams and rivers, which divided masses of ice and islets among the cyclopean monsters who inhabited their black wells.

All of these creatures I could see through the dimensional rifts which whirred and popped like an electro-static orchestra in the universe.

Techno worlds smoldered in the distance.

PATH OF THE RIFT ROGUE

I have traveled much since I last wrote of my arrival in the smash realms—for now I understand that I had mistakenly took this plane of existence to be the infamous necroverse of the D’hern. Quite far from it!

I have acquired more than experience while here in the smash realms. I am transformed.

There is little use for keeping a journal in the time that has transpired. Yet, there is much worth noting from my shorthand scribbling.

I travel now with my new companions, Broden the dwarven portal berserker, and a droid who responds to the name PAWN. Together Broden and I search the lands of the smash-verse for necrogs or necroborgs.

PAWN scans the wide and narrow bands of the ether for portal activity before we enter any new territory.

My party has survived nearly three years, although Broden has been on the hunt for a much longer time.

Broden has taken down only four of the necrogs since we formed a campaign to retire all of the D’hern and their monstrosities on this plane. I agreed in part because I had nowhere else to go, and in part for revenge for what happened to my people of Gaiasar.

The necrogs are hard to kill, and one must flee when there are in numbers. That’s the tricky part. Necrogs do not work well as a unit or even in small bands. Yet the combined might of their evil presence is overwhelming even to a portal berserker. So, as they do not work well as a team, their raw psychical presence does their wicked kind some credit as formidable foes.

The portal berserkers are a few hundred at most, and because necrogs are created from the dead, their numbers overshadow the efforts we make.

When portal berserkers first arrived on this plane, two hundred necrogs were slain in the first year alone. But, a dark alliance with the necromancers who created the necrogs overturned the berserker army. Broden is the only living berserker on this side of Zorbos—the realm on this side of the Smash-realm plane.

Zorbos is a strange cloister of asteroids orbiting a dark sun, and is said to have been born from the collision of two universes eons ago (though I suspect that in some strange workings of time/ space that one of these universes was my own).

The worlds where super smash portals arrived were torn and flung into the void of the smash-verse,--a universe where fragments of different worlds are pulled together (the opposite of the chaos theory, where nature moves toward a limited direction of order as opposed to disorder) and exist after being transformed by the smash portal.

Being but a minor front against the D’hern, our one advantage over the necrogs is the PAWN unit. We have learned that the necrogs cannot detect the presence of droids—or perhaps they merely ignore them. Yet, living beings within an unknown radius of the necroborg will awaken them and their ilk (for far worse creatures, to my surprise and horror, exist as allies to the necroborg and the D’hern).

With our droid unit we peer into necrog strongholds without being detected. If there are living survivors of any of the light born races (those born from the planets orbiting stars), we can attempt a rescue once we’ve breached their slave pens.

There is a triad, a dark alliance between D’hern and other races. Without such an alliance, the necrog alone would be unable to hold prisoners for any length of time. The Drow, on the other-hand, are masters of imprisonment and torment.

FELLOWSHIP ENDS

The triad has left this rock of Zorbos for another realm. The Drow, necromancers, and necrogs departed on a vessel of some kind—one which took to the air and then transcended the forever dark space above.

Broden passed beyond my reach as one of the great ships lifted into the sky. I could not keep pace with my companion, and fell behind miserably.

I witnessed the dwarf climb inside a shaft on that vessel. The space vessel darted off into the heavens. A great battle ax fell at my feet, burrowing its blade deep into the earth.

The PAWN unit and I waited for a length of time immeasurable; but alas, our companion was never to be seen again.

NEW HORIZONS

Hefting the dwarf’s battle ax over my shoulder, the droid and I set out a course over the barrens, a place just north-east of the dark elves’ empty shipyard. I was eager to be rid of this place, for an aura of evil lingered long after the Drow’s departure from the space vessle graveyard.

Over a long stretch opened canyons like deep veins in the earth. The north was impassable. But, our luck improved when the droid’s sensors picked up life-forms to the east. This meant the possibility of food and water; something I was desperately in need of.

We came upon an encampment, but all signs of life were now gone. A rail cart remained fixed to the tracks leading in the general direction we were headed. Scrutinizing the control panel for a means of activating the mechanism for piloting this rail cart, PAWN’s extensors went straight into action.

The cart jolts. Quickly I open the side door which has a wedge. The droid rolls up into the cart. Closing the door, we are set. The cart builds up an electromagnetic field, and we are lifted into the air, flowing along the railing as silently as a ghost.

The grim lands of the Drow fell from my sight. I was glad to be rid of the place.

Ahead was a stretch of moon rock. All that could be seen was a blanket of white rock along the ground, which contrasted eerily with the vast blackness above.

I dozed off in the backside of the cart, seeing that it was twice the size of a man, and had just enough room for the droid at the operating panel.

PAWN would alert me to any danger. So I slept rather peacefully as we hovered along the monorail through space.

GAIASAR DERELICT PLANET

A rift rogue and a small droid appeared on the horizon, riding in a Drow skiff. The tiny craft skimmed across the waves of the infernal ocean of what was once the peninsula of Talos. Great arched doors rose high into the sky, and were translucent, or perhaps at times they fluxed like ghostly holograms of portals that had ceased to exist on the physical plane. The rogue in his flying ship counted nine great portals in all.

RUINS OF GAIASAR

What was once a grand array of towns surrounding a great series of towers, which extended out into the sea was now swallowed by the lava and gaseous oceans aflame.

Beyond the tattered islets of Talos lay the ruins of the mighty cities of Gaiasar, which surrounded the old castle of the last good king of Gaiasar, Lord Futharion.

A skiff settled somewhere in the ruins of the city, only a walking distance of some spans from the derelict castle.

From beneath the hull opened a narrow ramp. Descending first was a droid, which paused at the base of the ramp, turning its pie shaped head from side to side. The droid clicked, whirred, and sped down the slope of the street, making short adjustments to its bi-articulate walkers, converting them into wheeled feet for which to travel more effectively.

Behind the droid came a man, or what looked like a man. His leather variant of a Barbute helmet contrasted with his priestly garb—of which consisted of a tattered dishdana or hooded robe. He wore a hybrid armor of hides, leather, and padding, and a heavy medallion bearing the glyph of the ox and the hawk within concentric circles that he wore across heart, and which digressed, by means of additional linkages down to his abdomen, into a variety of pendants and amulets. Additionally, the ranger from beyond the stars carried a pendulum of ebony opal which hung from a platinum chain around his neck.

The rogue hefted a heavy ax over one shoulder, which further contrasted with his scholarly attire, but which complemented his armor. It was a dwarve forged weapon of fine craftsmanship. A pair of cables ran along the rod of the ax, between the handle and the blade. The head of the ax was heavier than an ordinary battle-ax, as if made to accommodate other working components. The ax resembled some lethal gadgetry more than it did a medieval weapon.

In the rogue’s other hand, he held on to a staff made of metal and switches. A clear chamber under a crest of quartz-crystal contained a black diode, which was suspended in the small space between a pair gold wires.

The rogue trailed after the droid casually, and on occasion turning his head over his shoulder to see around the blade of his ax. When he didn’t spot anyone else, he often caught look of the key-switch on the head of the ax—the self destruct mechanism Broden mentioned something about many years ago. To himself, the rogue ventured a thought, I wonder if I’ll ever have to use this?

What remained of the city streets was more than what fragmented islets had become of Talos. Most of Gaiasar was in complete ruin, but here and there the rift rogue found an intact chamber or construct—mostly the reconstructed domes and pyramids of the cyborgs from the metal realms. It only made sense that the structures built by the gear-heads would outlast the relished cobbled squares and tiled courtyards of the Gaiasarians. Cyborgs built only out of necessity; and everything they built was functional, solid, and impervious to nature’s upsets. But, ironically, their indestructible city built over Gaiasar’s lovely gardens never expected the disaster of the supernatural—the smash portal.

Some of old Gaiasar remained. Mostly the walls, the perimeter of homes, were intact, but the rooftops were crumpled or simply missing. Age swept swiftly over the metal bridges, and nature had enough time to retake much of the streets, overturning cobblestones, and running its dark green veins through every nook and cranny in the elder walls of Futharion’s castle.

At the bridge of the ancient castle the rogue stooped to one knee. He bowed and touched his breast plate of hide and leather. Before him yawned the great gate into the outer courtyard of Lord Futharion’s castle. And it was open.

The pendulum around the rogue’s neck became very heavy, as if gravity worked at unfastening it from his neck. The rogue depressed a switch on his walking staff, which followed a retracting of rods within the shell of the staff. The staff was now a small, six inch rod—which the rogue quickly shifted into his belt purse.

Setting the ax down by his boot, the rogue spoke commands to the droid at his side to be still. The man held the pendulum up before him, and with a few deep breaths said unto the air magic words which stilled the wind. Eerily, the pendulum leapt up at a ninety degree angle, pointing directly to the castle.

Patiently, the portal ranger waited. The presence inside was moving around, for as he read the dance of his pendulum with care, he noted the way it shook wearily to one side of its initial direction. If he read correctly, it appeared that what force was inside the old king’s castle was active.

Grimly, the man of Talos closed his eyes. He calmed his mind, and gradually his inner eye awakened. At first the inward screen upon his skull was filled with fleeting streaks of light, gleaning whirls, and distant twinkling stars. But, within minutes his second sight pierced through the veil perceived by his ordinary faculties, and he beheld the pendulum flaring out wildly in his mind’s interpretation. It pointed like a spectral finger up, up, high aloft a towering window. He followed its direction in his mind, and his focus brought his psychic presence into the room of that great window.

A vision exploded in the mind of the Talosian rogue—a great hulk of a creature reared up back at him, as if aware of Talosian’s ethereal gaze upon the creature.

Time to move! The Talosian ushered his droid companion. Hefting the burdensome ax, the rogue depressed a button on the butt of the handle. First, a vibration ran through the ax. Then, a humming sounded from the center of the rod. And finally the blade blazoned like a flash from the sun.

Quickly, the rogue moved onto the bridge, running for the great door of the castle. The space between the door and the bridge filled with the sounds of heavy footsteps. The ground nearly trembled.

“For Gaiasar!” The man from Talos growled.

OLD ENEMIES

Three giant corpses lay in distorted slumps among the ancient corridors of King Futharion’s inner halls. With a grunt of disgust, the man of Talos wiped clean his blade on the hide of one of the ogres. Their mechanical limbs twitched now and then despite being severed from the body. The rogue rested in a corner with his ax against his chest. Then, with a vengeance he pushed away from the cold stone wall.

Step after step, he followed the audible breath of the beast through the inner darkness of the castle.

PAWN was set to guard-mode; and he waited at the courtyard’s entrance, ready to sound alarm if any more ogres should advance on the rogue’s flank from the ground level.

“Who’re ye, stranger?” groaned a half mechanical and partly animal voice in the darkness.

At length the rogue reached the last flight of stairs. At the top, mostly concealed in shadow, towered a biomechatronic monstrosity. Its face was hidden, save for a red eye that peered through a metal plate, which partially covered its face.

“I came from Talos…” the rogue began.

“Talos is dead. You come not from Talos, unless you are dead. Yeeessss?” the monster hissed sadistically.

The rogue reached for the back of his utility belt. Felt the cold steel roll into his hand.

“No, I am not dead. I am Malar,” the rogue retorted.

“Malar? What is a Malar?” inquired the creature. Its mechanical limbs were clutching at something near in the darkness.

“Malar the scholar, the portal wizard, the ranger, the rift rogue… ” Malar went on.

The creature grunted, and again came the sound of something mechanical scraping metal in the darkness.

“I came from Talos, but I am from Gaiasar.”

The mechanical sound ceased. There was a silence. “Gaiasarrrr… yesss,” hissed the creature in the shadows.

“And a servant of King Futharion!” Quickly the rogue shifted his footing as he hurled the canister in his hidden hand at the darkness.

Simultaneously, the creature lurched forward, taking a full hit from the day-glow capsule. A greenish silhouette shrouded over the creature as it came forward. The light confused and blinded it, but Malar had shielded his own eyes from the blast.

What remained of the light was an outline around the creature. The intensity of the flash, however, had a lasting effect on the low-light vision of the creature. It’s one red eye was stunned, and as it came forward it slipped in its footing.

With a great clamor and cacophony the great beast fell. Malar jumped into the pane of a boarded up window to avoid being drawn down the steps with the creature. The rogue quickly planted a small clay object onto the ledge of the window. Pressed down on a small button for the count of three, and then released it.

Now I have the high ground, Malar reasoned to himself. He hefted Broden’s vibro ax into a striking position, and trailed after the creature.

As the creature continued to fall, rolling and slipping as it tried to regain its ballast on the treacherous steps of Futharion’s castle, Malar followed with the ax raised in position over the creature’s ugly head.

Having his first chance to see the creature in full light coming through the courtyard entrance, Malar recoiled before he could take the first strike.

The creature was a hideous troll, but of a size and species unseen in all of Gaiasar, save for one place—the dark mountains where his party had discovered the relics of the ancients.

Lord Trul, the words inscribed upon the door far below the ancient excavation site, returned to Malar’s memory. It was like a wasp had stung his inner ear at the mere thought of the name. The companions he’d lost, the lives that were taken and tormented in those dark places. For those ogres in mechanical bodies wore a strong resemblance upon their faces for which only now Malar dared to compare with his fallen comrades. Mutations, he realized. Lord Trul and these ogres are all the product of a much darker secret, Malar realized.

Then Malar found himself off-guard, busy with his recollection. In this time Lord Trul had managed to still his fall, and was attempting to regain his footing.

“Lord Trul, may I presume?” Malar shot a fiery gaze upon his opponent.

Still pulling himself up on his artificial legs, which were huge bi-articulate mechanisms, the cyborg troll grimaced. He had a changed expression in his red eye; the other was an empty, blackened socket in a thick green, bumpy skull. The cyborg troll heaved a deep breath, but did not strike. It appeared to be more cautious of its prey this round.

Malar adjusted a switch-lever on the hand of the ax, decreasing its weight (which would return when the blade came down in a striking motion to make the impact very strong). As he moved the ax behind himself with one hand, Malar also adjusted his distance from the troll.

Lord Trul moved up the stairs, testing each step until he was certain the stairs would hold him. The troll’s mechanical claws stretched out before his armored body.

Once the troll realized it could ascend safely, it disregarded all caution, and was once again a beast without reasoning. The green cyborg rushed up the stairs with hideous speed, like a mechanical spider. Clunk, clank, scrape! Lord Trul advanced swiftly despite all his commotion.

Malar reached back with his other hand to a remote on his utility belt. As the rogue dived off the stairs for one of the grand chandeliers in the chamber below, he depressed the button on the remote.

Kaboom!!!

The window frame, wall, and a good portion of the stairs exploded outward, carrying the terrified Lord Trul into moat far below the backside of the Castle.

So that’s a gravity grenade, Malar mused. The blast of the gravity grenade was pointed away from his position, but had nearly pulled Malar from the chandeliers with its g-force.

It will be a grand day in Gaiasar if we never see that Lord Trul again, Malar patted PAWN on his pie shaped head. The droid unit beeped twice and whirred about on its wheels and gears.

Scanning the moat, Malar found no sign of the cyborg troll. In the castle, there appeared to be no other menace—save for rats! And a shame it was that Malar was no expert in terminating rats, for such a noble house had been Futharion’s castle in the days of old.

After paying his respects to the burial yard of the Kings of old, Malar continued his quest to find what King Futharion had originally hired him to uncover. With his droid companion, Malar set out to find that most elusive mountain of the elder gods—Mount Threshaven.

There were nine greater portals of power. Threshaven is where all portals are one. They are all in one place, one space, and one time. No force of nature could destroy the mountain that was at all times and places whole unto it self. To the observer, Mount Threshaven is said to appear in a state of transformation. All seasons whirl around the colossal mountain, like a halo of madness. Yet, as the scholar had begun to understand, anyone who was on the soil of Threshaven would be in the same time and place as the portals of power. The secrets of the universe were cultivated within the mountain by intelligences beyond human knowledge. This… this is the secret that the King Futharion and his son Othelon sought with all their gold and all their might. And in the end it cost them the bloodline of their great house.

Malar produced his rod, and transformed it into a staff with the flick of a switch-dial. Before his feet appeared the disc of chaos. Malar motioned to the droid, and together they flew through space/ time, seeking the ancient mountain of the gods. It came to Malar that the first place to seek out the means to finding Threshaven would be through the mountain passes of Diabiscus… the very place where his first expedition had been destroyed by Lord Trul. And yet, there were still far darker things therein the vaults and mazes beneath ancient Gaiasar.

Resources:
RPG 9Portals.com
RPG 9portals.blogspot.com

eBooks http://bit.ly/thomaspwalton

Introducing Biomechatronic Sarcophagus Icons in Simple RPG Maps!

2012-01-10T07:19:00.000-08:00

Coming at you like a techno kid from outer-space... breaking through the mainstream regurgitated RPG like a comet of prophecy! This week I present the new biomechatronic sarcophagus icon in a very simple role-playing game (rpg) map. The map itself is a cross between the linear style maps of Doom and the character icon based maps of Hexen (both lovely video games respectively). You can easily see my own touch of charismatic style, with or without the portals.

Let's see the map! Munson! Fire the Moonbeamer! Calibrate the settings for stunning maps!

What we have here is a map of an underground excavation area. The far east side of the map is the excavation site (left blank for the DM to add other maps or portals from this map). The west side of the map (left) is where players emerge. There are a number of guardians (you may replace them with any other monstrosity you see fit) defending the entrance. After emerging from the teleports, there is a long wall of steel/ a fence of iron, or whatever you like! Time slows down in this area due to disharmonious forces in the teleportation area.

Defending the region to the north side of the site is a guardian called a 'squank'. These monstrosities are cyborg tanks with massive biomechanical tentacles. Other biomechanical monsters on this map include the infamous 9portals' necroborg, and some shadow necroborgs. There are two goblinoids... one a hobgoblin elite borg, and the other a goblin wearing power armor. Their loot is worth getting in this map.

When players enter the center of the site, there is a loft or secondary tier on either side throughout the site. The secondary tier is for the control panels and other electronic apparatus. Add whatever components you want. To access the metal portal, players must first get past the runic door (requires the runic fuse to turn the power back on the door). A chaos keycard is added as a bonus if players defeat two bionically enhanced goblinoids. A cryptic room containing coffins and sarcophagus of high tech or alien design presents a challenge to players greedy for treasure. The fluids pour into the metallic capsules, the gears grid as electrical energy surges through the dead cyborgs in the sarcophagus, and the iron claws over the shields release the undead menaces into the room.

*Note: Thomas P. Walton sells ebooks which are available in the United Kingdom and United States of America http://bit.ly/thomaspwalton

Quick Review of Avadon for iPad

2012-01-04T11:35:00.000-08:00

Avadon is a role-playing game (RPG) I started playing on iPad some months now. The game sets the player character in a medieval world, where the lands are continuously being reunified by the Pact. Of this 'Pact' is the powerful black fortress of Avadon--where the player character sets out to seek employment as an agent (a hand of Avadon).

As for game play...

The game runs well for an iPad game (I've read reviews on many iPad games which simply fail to run, or don't work unless connected to the internet). If fact, it runs very well. There are some fixes, but these are regularly updated in iTunes/Apps. The player character runs through a number of assignments, and some miscellaneous side quests for gold, jewels, or magic items. There is a nice surprise opportunity to turn against Avadon (making it a nice way to replay the game after completing all quests the first time through).

Play style is, I must admit, a bit redundant. This is probably part of the reason it has taken me months to play the game. On the other hand, there are points in the game when the story gets so involved that one cannot readily put the iPad down (I'm equally guilty of seeing the sun rise before I've given the game a rest).

If you're looking for a serious role-playing game, you'd probably do better with Wizard's of the Coast's 'NeverWinerNights' or 'Baldur's Gate II'. However, if you'd like a decent iPad RPG on hand, then a hand of Avadon is the way to go. The real downside of Avadon is a real limited player character/ avatar selection (both fighter classes are male; both magic-user classes are female). There. I've said it. You get four avatars to choose from, and that's it.

*Note: Thomas P. Walton sells ebooks which are available in the United Kingdom and United States of America http://bit.ly/thomaspwalton

Portal Crisis Shout Out for RPGamers!

2011-12-24T05:46:00.000-08:00

For those of you who haven't already read Portal Crisis: Book of Doors (a plot driven game package for multiple RPG's), get over to 9portals.com/bookstore and see the featured book. It's the only book on the site for ten dollars, and there's many others for only fifty cents.

Please support NINE PORTALS (9PRPG) by visiting 9portals.com today. Keep the Arnesson and Gygax dream alive by supporting independent role-playing game and fantasy art indies.

e-books
*Note: Thomas P. Walton sells ebooks which are available in the United Kingdom and United States of America http://bit.ly/thomaspwalton

70's 80's Retrospect

2011-12-22T05:58:00.000-08:00

One of the things I liked most about 1980 is the Beta. Back in the day I had over 300 Beta tapes for my machine and tele. Not one of them had a picture on it. The cases were generic, most of them just white or black jackets. As far as descriptions go, well people were too impatient to write full descriptions on to the tapes (I got most of my films from people overseas mailing me the American movies while I was living in Saudi Arabia). Anyway, the fun part about all those Beta tapes/ movies was digging through shelves of them as a kid, and then trying to guess what the movie was all about (First time I saw "Alien" was on a Beta tape).

What was fun about it was that the tapes were more personal. We didn't have a bunch of pompous images telling us what the movie was about or how good it might be. Word of mouth *Hey did you ever see that film, um what's it called...* was one means of figuring out what tapes had what movies on them. Descriptions written by my uncle or someone at work. There was fun back in the day. Now days everything seems to be spelled out for us (as if we're incapable of any imagination).

Two Upcoming Books

2011-12-20T09:04:00.000-08:00

Two books underway...
One is the much anticipated THRESHAVEN RPG/ 9PRPG history and maps ebook. This book features all the realms associated with the discovery of Mount Threshaven.

The second book underway is the screen written variant of GOTHOCRACY, or GOTHOCRACY 3. This book is a techno-cult fiction following the adventures of the after-life citadel of Citibaad, and the remnants of DOr Earth.

Both books are expected to arrive in 2012, either by summer or next fall.

Follow this blog for updates.

*Note: Thomas P. Walton sells ebooks which are available in the United Kingdom and United States of America http://bit.ly/thomaspwalton

Tips for Teenage RPGamers: Elder Players

2011-12-20T08:59:00.000-08:00

Of all the table games and dice rolling with friends, I think that the best Dungeons role-playing games I've ever played was with my mother and brother. Similarly there have been some good games I've played with other elders, or persons who have more experience. The benefit is a wealth of new vocabulary, concepts, and better knowledge of history. So, give it a go! Try a role-playing game with mom and dad, or with that wacky uncle your mother in-law nags about. You'll be surprised at how much fun you have.

Tips for teenage RPGamers!

*Note: Thomas P. Walton sells ebooks which are available in the United Kingdom and United States of America http://bit.ly/thomaspwalton

Jump Through Portals of Power in a Flexible, Multi-Genre RPG Package

2011-12-06T07:15:00.000-08:00

PORTAL CRISIS: BOOK OF DOORS is an adventure package that keeps changing, depending on which portal players embark. Start in the waste of the barrens as an escort for a mage, or skip past the intro chapter and travel to the cyber base of the rift rogue. Slam through dimensional tears in the fabric of space/ time, and then kick down dungeon doors across the multi-verse. Take down cyborgs, necro-beasts, and sorcerers of insurmountable evil in one game or in a series of stretched out game sessions. This ebook includes complimentary maps, and an appendix for expanding the game beyond the packaged adventure.

Resources:
Portal Crisis (PDF/ full color/ $0.50) http://bit.ly/dNRgNM

eBooks for RPG and 9Portals Fantasy Adventure Maps

2011-12-03T21:55:00.000-08:00

Quasi-matrix maps, portal guides, rogue role-playing game adventures, plots, and tips are all available on 9portals.com/bookstore. Go to 9portals.com to purchase the featured book, Portal Crisis, for only 50 cents! Many other titles are purchasable just under a couple of dollars.

How does it work? Simple! You choose a book to add to the online cart, pay via pay pal, and then a link is directed to your email inbox to download the book. Secure, fast, and down right affordable!

Thanks for supporting 9PRPG and other great indies publishers!

Simplifying Portals and Maps for Technical Dungeon-Mastering

2011-10-22T01:32:00.000-07:00

Title: Simplifying Portals and Maps for Technical Dungeon-Mastering
By: Thomas P. Walton
Prepared for: 9Portals.com

INTRO:
You may be an artist or a creative individual, but perhaps you just don’t have the illustration skills to make super maps. Regardless, whether you have the skill or not, using simplified portal maps from the Nine Portals/ 9Portals system is easy to do. Create these player/DM-friendly maps either by hand or with a program like Visio.

HOW-TO
Use the provided image as a reference for simplifying a self-made role-playing game map (or use it to reconfigure an existing map from other games).

You already have an idea of what your game is going to be, and you have a rough plot developed in your mind. All you really need is a means to express this story visually, and as a way to reference your own information for administering the game.

First, begin by plotting down the structures, like castles and keeps, small villages, and so on. To do this, reference the provided JPEG image in this blog post. Go over the simple shapes, and try creating your own on a piece of paper or in a program like Visio.

Secondly, you want to rearrange the symbols and icons in a way that is visually easy to recognize. Practice jotting down notes and moving shapes around until you have something that looks like a technical map of your fantasy-adventure world concept.

Lastly, ensure that your linear paths (roads, corridors, tunnels) are connected to the structures on your map, and are relative to the actual localization in the imagined/ fantasy-adventure world concept.

Go over your indicators and reference numbers to ensure annotations match up with the other maps and documents you have prepared for your role-playing game campaign and adventure plot.

As a tip: Use colors to indicate important elements, like rivers or streams running through/under/above/around chambers and structures where necessary/ desirable. For people who are color blind, use wavy lines and a combination of dots to indicate various elements of game importance.

THE PLAYER MAP:
Players will unlikely see the map you first create for yourself. To issue a player-friendly map, use tracing paper over your current map. Trace over the structures and shapes you want players to see—omit the hidden structures and annotations from the tracing paper. Place the tracing paper over another sheet of paper and tape it to the top. Players can then redraw parts of the map as they explore your realm. This is kind of fun, because what players come up with may look different from your secret map.

THE ADMINISTRATOR’S MECHANICAL SHEET
If you read schematics, that’s great—but most people playing at your game table won’t have a clue. So, let’s be kind to them (eh, heh, I know it’s fun to tease the friends, but don’t).

As an alternative to schematics, a mechanical device/ apparatus such as a techno-portal, mechanical door, or series of levers and pulleys can be visually conceptualized in a prepared network diagram and/ or block diagram. Adding a chart or graph can help with thermostats, frequency adjusters (potentiometers and rheostats with their paired indicator screens).

A block diagram tells players that ‘something’ needs to be visualized, but the system being described is readily understood. This is very important if players should happen to acquire scrolls and parchment in the game which indicate the proper usage of such devices as a draw bridge, crude elevator shaft, mechanical door, etc.

Network diagrams are best for indicating the relationship between portals; that is, what exit portal or beacon an entrance portal is conjoined to, and even which realms/maps the portals lead to. A network diagram need only be a simple circle centered on a page, surrounded by a series of overlapping circles, or alternatively an icon centered on the page with various indicators to other icons.

Recommended reading for young RPG hobbyists:
Zork I (an 80's computer game, text based. Gives you an idea of how to map as you go along playing the game. Also, you can acquire Zork maps made by hobbyists around the world by running a keyword search on Google, and select the IMAGES option).

Books on RPG games and DIY fantasy adventure by Thomas P. Walton. Go to BIT.LY/THOMASPWALTON
or
See the bookstore on 9portals.com

*Note: Thomas P. Walton sells ebooks which are available in the United Kingdom and United States of America http://bit.ly/thomaspwalton

Take Portals Beyond the Game Table for RPG

2011-10-19T07:44:00.000-07:00

Going beyond the usual statement of "A portal appears before you..." Smash Portal gives the GM/DM a headslam view into portal diving, and literally smashing down dungeon doors across the RPG universe. Some of the major RPG companies may have updated their portal descriptions, but remember it was 9Portals that took the plunge head first. Be original, and try 9Portals' Smash Portal RPG and other books. 9PRPG took charge and designated names and uses for portals. Thomas P. Walton is the original nine portals creator.

Smash Portal:
http://bit.ly/thomaspwalton

The LARD of the BEANS (Lord of the Rings Parody, Scene in Rivendale)

2011-09-18T08:42:00.000-07:00

Info:
The Lard of the Beans – LotR Parody: Scene at Rivendale

This is a short scene from The Lord of the Rings film made into a parody by Thomas P. Walton. No offense is intended. The author is also a fan of the books and films.

Scene 1

A swift wind draws companions close around the tree stump table in Lord El Rod’s garden.

LORD EL ROD
We are gathered here today because an ancient evil threatens the lands of both men and elks. You all know this evil I speak of… yet you do not fully grasp its meaning. More-dorks has grown strong if he can hurl beans at use all the way from Ola Mendi’s!.--Swarm of beans falls from the sky over the counsel like a tsunami.

Mojo Bargains?

Mr. Mojo Bargains, a halfling from Hobo Town emerges from behind the folds in Grand Elf’s robes.

LORD EL ROD
Mojo, it is time. Spill the beans!

Mojo tosses a handful of the vile beans with a grunt of disgust. As the black peas scatter over the tree-stump table, there is a stir from around the counsel in El Rod’s garden.

GRISLY the DORK
Dork Lord’s bane!!!

BORROW-MORE
My brothers have given their lives while your people kept safe! Why not let Gandork use the weapon of the enemy?! Give me the beans and—

GRAND ELK
Shut up Borrow-More! Our one hope lies in foolishness! If the enemy assumes that one of us will attempt to eat these beans he will wait until---

The short, but stout, dwarf lord rises from his seat at the counsel, mallet swung over his shoulder.

GRISLY the DORK
Well why not make re-fried beans out of them!.--Lunges forward with a large mallet.

LORD EL ROD
No, Grisly! You’ll just—

A roaring wind and the sound of thunder drone over the counsel.

PIPE HEAD
Well, don’t look at me. I didn’t hooty-tooty!

MARIQUE
Quiet Pipe! You know how sensitive the dorks are about their toots.

LEGO MAX
We should make salsa for the beans and send it back to More-dorks!

GRISLY the DORK
And I suppose you think you’re the one to toot it! I’ll be dead before I see the beans in the hands of an elk! Never trust an elk!

Commotion begins! The counsel blames one another for passing wind.

MR. MOJO BARGAINS

Wait! I will take the beans! I will TAKE THEM!

The counsel regards Mojo with looks of both confusion and constipation.

MR.MOJO BARGAINS
Though I do not know if I am feeling okay.

GRAND ELK

Moaning, rips a raunchy one, then turns to Mojo.--I will help you bare this burden, so long as YOU are the one DOWNWIND of it.

ARAB HORN
I swear to protect you.--Kneels before Mr. Mojo with his instrument before him.--You have my GUITAR.

LEGO MAX
And you have my bass!

GRISLY the Dork
and MY SNACKS!.--A handful of beans disappears into the dork’s beard.

Counsel
No, Grisly!.--Fanning themselves, the counsel spreads out to avoid the downwind of the stout dork.

LORD EL ROD
Great! From hence forth you will be known as—

PIPE HEAD

The Duby Brothers?

LORD EL ROD
No! From this day forward you will be known as The FELLOWSHIP of the BE.ANS!

Counsel members look around, bobbing their crowns in approval.

PIPE HEAD
Great! When are we drinking?

MARIQUE
Shakes head.--You’re not rock’n, Pipe.

Resources:

Free Sci FI and Gothic literature! eBooks available in the US & UK. See http://bit.ly/thomaspwalton

Relevant:
The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (Extended Edition + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]
The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition)
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Theatrical and Extended Limited Edition)

Other SciFi and Fantasy Related Media
The Ultimate Matrix Collection [Blu-ray]
Kingdom of Heaven (Director's Cut) [Blu-ray]
King Kong - Extended Cut (Three-Disc Deluxe Edition)
The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition Collector's Gift Set)

Adult
Faster than a Speeding Vixen
The Fetish Adventures of Female Flagellants [Illustrated] (Sublime Spanking Sex Stories)
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
Adventure of Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother Movie Poster (11 x 17 Inches - 28cm x 44cm) (1975) French Style A -(Gene Wilder)(Madeline Kahn)(Marty Feldman)(Dom DeLuise)(Leo McKern)(Roy Kinnear)
Alice In Wonderland
The Sexy Storybook Collection
Sisters in Arms
A Paranormal Murder - The Wizards and Witches series - Part 1
THE SCARLET ZOMBIE "CABIN FEVER"

*Note: Thomas P. Walton sells ebooks which are available in the United Kingdom and United States of America http://bit.ly/thomaspwalton

The Lard of the Beans, LotR Parody

2011-09-12T06:52:00.000-07:00

Info:
The Lard of the Beans – LotR Parody: Scene at Rivendale

This is a short scene from The Lord of the Rings film made into a parody by Thomas P. Walton. No offense is intended. The author is also a fan of the books and films.

Scene 1

[A swift wind draws companions close around the tree stump table in Lord El Rod’s garden]

Lord El Rod: We are gathered here today because an ancient evil threatens the lands of both men and elks. You all know this evil I speak of… yet you do not fully grasp its meaning. More-dorks has grown strong if he can hurl beans at use all the way from Ola Mendi’s! [swarm of beans falls from the sky over the counsel like a tsunami]

Lord El Rod: Mojo Bargains?

Mr. Mojo Bargains, a halfling from Hobo Town emerges from behind the folds in Grand Elf’s robes.

Lord El Rod: Mojo, it is time. Spill the beans!

Mojo tosses a handful of the vile beans with a grunt of disgust. As the black peas scatter over the tree-stump table, there is a stir from around the counsel in El Rod’s garden.

Grisly: Dork Lord’s bane!!!

Borrow-More: My brothers have given their lives while your people kept safe! Why not let Gandork use the weapon of the enemy?! Give me the beans and—

Grand Elf: Shut up Borrow-More! Our one hope lies in foolishness! If the enemy assumes that one of us will attempt to eat these beans he will wait until---

Grisly: Well why not make re-fried beans out of them! (Lunges forward with a large mallet).

Lord El Rod: No, Grisly! You’ll just—

A roaring wind and the sound of thunder drone over the counsel.

Pipe-Head: Well, don’t look at me. I didn’t hooty-tooty.

Marique: Quiet Pipe! You know how sensitive the dorks are about their toots.

Lego-Max: We should make salsa for the beans and send it back to More-dorks!

Grisly: And I suppose you think you’re the one to toot it! I’ll be dead before I see the beans in the hands of an elk! Never trust an elk!

[Commotion begins! The counsel blames one another for passing wind.]

Mr. Mojo Bargains: Wait! I will take the beans! I will TAKE THEM!

[the counsel looks at Mojo in awe]

Mr. Mojo Bargains: Though I do not know if I am feeling okay.

Grand Elf: [moaning, rips a raunchy one, then turns to Mojo] I will help you bare this burden—so long as you are the one downwind of it.

Arab Horn: I will go with you. [kneels before Mr. Mojo with his instrument before him] You have my guitar.

Lego-Max: And you have my bass.

Grisly: and MY SNACKS! [a handful of beans disappears into the dork’s beard]

Counsel: No, Grisly!

[fanning themselves, the counsel spreads out to avoid the downwind of the stout dork]

Lord El Rod: Great! From hence forth you will be known as—

Pipe-Head: The Duby Brothers?

Lord El Rod: No! From this day forward you will be known as ‘The Fellowship of the Bean!”

[Counsel members look around, bobbing their crowns in approval]

Pipe-Head: Great! When are we drinking?

Marique: You’re not rock’n, Pipe.

Ultimate Portals Adventure (9PRPG)

2011-08-26T05:33:00.000-07:00

Ultimate fantasy-adventure begins with gamers sharing a story-telling experience at the gaming table. Nine Portals role-playing game enhancers and fantasy adventure maps are designed to bring out the joy of the game rather than boggle down players with standards. With the right configurations, and with the best design for gaming table fun, Portal Crisis: Book of Doors, will cast enchantment over the players.

Begin your adventure in the distant past, delving into fantasies of the ancient gods before the rise of high-technology on the planes of remote realms. Take a rogue scholar on a pilgrimage to the shunned tunnels of time, beyond the kingdom of good and ordinary folk, and right into the lonesome blight where few others have returned to tell of strange creatures and uncovered artifacts of great power.

Players will then take a ride through the dimensional gates of the shunned mountain and meet a rather unexpected twist in their little campaign.

The party finds the lands of River Country to be fair, yet a menace of evil resides on the current map--hidden by locks and guards.

Adventure from the past to the distant past, to the future, and to a place outside of time and space. The ultimate adventure awaits for Dungeons and Dragons, Rifts, Gamma World, and Warhammer hobbyists in 9Portals' PORTAL CRISIS: BOOK OF DOORS!!!

References:
Amazon Kindle RPG Books by Thomas P. Walton
PDF colored maps for Portal Crisis

***Read more about the ultimate fantasy adventure game of Portal Crisis: Book of Doors, complete fantasy-adventure RPG package on 9portals.com!***

Getting Tanked for RPG

2011-08-11T22:52:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about RPG and fantasy-adventure tabletop is getting tanked for the game. That can mean different things to different people... be it getting tankered on royal ale or otherwise. What I'm referring to is getting dressed for the game table. There's no better way to do this than to don a helmet of medieval fashion.

Exceptional quality helmets: Helmets from the UK

Economy helmets and sci fi (some more expensive):

Kids Camouflage Army Helmet
Gladiator Roman Maximus Style Helmet Armor with Spikes

For Heroes Unlimited and X-Men style attire, try these helmets and gear:
Officially Licensed Marvel X-Men Movie Magneto Helmet Prop Replica Life Size Limited Edition
Magneto Classic Adult Costume Standard
Star Wars Clone Wars Captain Rex Helmet
Star Wars Stormtrooper Collectors Helmet, White, One Size
Officially Licensed Marvel Iron Man Movie Mark 3 Helmet Prop Replica Life Size Limited Edition
Z69 X MENS BELT BUCKLE

*Note: Thomas P. Walton sells ebooks which are available in the United Kingdom and United States of America http://bit.ly/thomaspwalton

Fantasy Toy Collector Held For Questioning by Arabian Airport Police

2011-08-11T04:09:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, we lived in Saudi Arabia with my American family. During our second year abroad, my family decided to visit the United States.

For Christmas, my grandmother gave me a 12 inch 'Alien' action figure. Cool! I thought. But getting it through the airport in Saudi Arabia was a royal pain in the ass.

My stepdad was held for questioning for a few hours. I felt really bad when he came home with the 12" action figure. Apparently, the security or airport police believed that the Alien action figure was some form of Satanic penate or a shrine relic of Lucifer. It took three hours to clear my stepdad's word with authorities. I'm surprised they let us keep the Alien figure.

No doubt, old dad was upset with Grandma for sending him home with this devilish toy.

Relevant toys and items:

Fantasy-adventure gamer resources:

9Portals for Fantasy Adventure and Role-Playing Game Enhancement/ Enchanted maps!

*Note: Thomas P. Walton sells ebooks which are available in the United Kingdom and United States of America http://bit.ly/thomaspwalton

Better and Newer Books for RPG DIY Hobbyists

2011-06-20T03:07:00.001-07:00

I've noticed sales have always been too good for short e-manuals, e-documents, and e-booklets like 'About RPG...' and '9Portals Book of Maps...'. However, there are better and newer books written by this author for 9Portals role-playing games (9PRPG). Some of Thomas P. Walton's ebooks, manuals, booklets, maps, and 100 page novels are available for just 50 cents each on 9portals.com/bookstore. Why people still keep buying the older books published by this author is beyond reasoning.

Buy these exciting, better and newer book titles (some available for just 50 cents or up to $2.99 at the most!!!):

Portal Crisis: Book of Doors
Get Portal Crisis for your next rogue, DIY role-playing game. Take players from a Dungeons or Medieval genre, and send them to the outskirts of the barren wastelands, where the portal to a new universe begins the players on a completely upside down quest. Room for expansion, and lots of possibilities for replaying w/ plot configurations. If you want a full color PDF book, then go to 9portals.com/bookstore and see the featured book! It's only fifty cents. That's $0.50 for Portal Crisis: Book of Doors.

Greed Master RPG
Get all three of these exciting new role-playing games. One is a fact sheet for the overview of the game, featuring a handful of new 'master-player-character' starter guides. Get help setting up a Greedy Dungeon Master's base with the Greed Master Matrix ebook. Then, really beef up your game with the Greed Master Entity Package. Each document is $2.99 on Amazon Kindle.

Note: The Diablocleus (maps and history of the evil planet in Smash Portal RPG by Thomas P. Walton)and other far-out super fantasy e-books are coming to Amazon and 9Portals.com soon. Keep this blog bookmarked!

Resources:
Thomas P. Walton's Kindle eBooks ....
9PRPG Thomas P. Walton's PDF RPG eBooks ....

New Title for Greed Master - Entity RPG

2011-06-17T07:46:00.001-07:00

The new tech spec sheet for Greed Master RPG will be arriving on Amazon in a day or two. This one is the third in a series of Greed Master (AKA: Greedy DM). In this package (20 page spec and strategy document) the GDM learns to set up the entire realm, including NPC's, and can customize his/her entity character as a game admin and master-player character.

One thing that separates Greed Master from 9Portal's other games (ex. Smash Portal, Portal Master) is the open ended outline of the game. There are few rules to adhere to, but the most important (less desirable to mess with, basically) rules are highlighted. So, you can have fun with this game--no matter what the geek next to you is howling about the core rule books (I personally recommend casting flesh to stone, but a silence 10' radius will normally suffice). Attributes, special feats, and abilities are included--along with the die rolls recommended (each book in the series has a different recommended die roll, and very open to configuring).

Keep a look out for the cover on Amazon Kindle.

As well, 9portals.com will at some point put up an interactive variant of the contemporary ebooks for RPG... stuff you'll like, so keep 9Portals.com bookmarked.

Author's Test Run of Sword of Fargoal

2011-05-22T11:30:00.000-07:00

I was in no hurry to buy an iPad until I realized that I wanted a large PDA for a number of years, and the iPad is the closest thing to an oversized personal data assistant. In truth, howver, iPad us much nicer than I had expected.

To be honest, I was blogging about an old commodore 64 game I loved, and referenced a link to the website of this wonderful dungeon exploring game called Sword of Fargoal. Later, on Twitter, there came a tweet from the crew or the author (I don't know which) of this game, thanking me for the mention and complimenting some of my blog work. I thought this was a nice coincidence, and then decided to look more into the site and tweets. I found that there had been a remake of Sword of Fargoal for iPhone.

To make a long story short, I had already purchased my fair share of phones and computer e
Hardware for that year, so I didn't rush out to purchase an iPhone just to play one of my favorite old time games. I budget myself wisely, no matter how much I love something. What I did was wait a year for when I would be ready to make a new purchase in wireless hardware. So, having learned that iPad also had a version/ app ready game of Sword of Fagoal, I went ahead and purchased the hardware (having considered and factoring in other basic needs, and having grown weary of Wondowsmobile of course).

Here's my take on Sword of Fargoal just a day into the game...

Music and sound effects are artful throughout the game. There's a touch of new graphics, but the classical elements of the game are held intact, carefully planned. Being an artist and creative writer, with a smattering of technical communication studies, I ca readily see that the creators of Sword of Fargoal loved the craft of making this game.

Dungeons are more web 2.0 style graphics, merging the classical concept of Sword of Fargoal with the modern techno graphics of our times, though not exactly contemporary... Sword if Fargoal for iPhone and iPad is still very original.

Sword of Fargoal for iPhone/ iPad has a number of interesting ways to explore dungeons. Anyone who has played the original game already has climbed down those haunted steps in the Commodore 64 game, but the imagination of the player had to make up for lack of splash pages between descents into the depths of deeper dungeons. New dungeon maps and interactive elements, such as holes in walls leading to hidden hallways and adjacent chambers of mystery, give the retro gamer a real eye opener for the potential of iPhone and iPad game interfaces.

There are some new weapons in Sword of Fargoal. One of particular importance is the implementation of ranged weapons. With a ranged weapon, the player character can avoid taking some damage and wear down foes from a safer distance than melded weapons alone.

Most of all (I am a bit too romantic about game art) I enjoy the addition of a nice story line combined with a sound filled introduction. And as I stated, the music and sound effects are good all through put the game. So, if you have not already, do plan on checking out this epic adventure game. You won't regret the hours of intimate dungeon crawling and exploration.

Resources

Original game for C64:
The Sword of Fargoal

New game:
Fargoal.com

Or see iTunes to download to iPad.

*Note: Thomas P. Walton sells ebooks which are available in the United Kingdom and United States of America http://bit.ly/thomaspwalton

C64 Seika of Asia Forgotten to Retro-Gaming

2011-05-22T10:48:00.000-07:00

An old game of the 80's I spent countless hours playing as an eleven year old, Seika of Asia, is but a memory. Seika of Asia is one of those games that has not made it into any of the contemporary retro gamer sites. This is understandable, for it was not a well known game even during the Commodore 64 computing days. But it was one of the games my parents gave me to encourage reading. At the time Commodore 64 was the home computer for a vast array of game genres, and myriad tex based games like Zork and Suspended had turned people's garages into computing dungeons(my uncle and aunt had the walls lined with maps they had drawn by hand, and pins to indicate where on the maps they had explored their text based games.

In any event, Seika of Asia was a sort of hybrid game; merging low graphics with a predominately text-based interface. Being a younger player of some rather in-depth games like Gamma World, I found the text based adventure to be enjoyable, hoping that if I guessed or put basic clues together that I would be rewarded by some surprising monster conjured up by low graphics.

These text-based games were not only fun, but such games tended to adapt young Thomas Walton to more mature games, such as Suspended, wherein there are no graphics... But the storyline is more sophisticated.

Resources
Retro Games

*Note: Thomas P. Walton sells ebooks which are available in the United Kingdom and United States of America http://bit.ly/thomaspwalton

Modeling the New Retro Gamer Shrine for Consoles (NES, PSP, C64, and More!)

2011-05-18T08:03:00.001-07:00

The purpose of any of the do-it-yourself (DIY) projects at 9portals.com, 9portals.blogspot.com, and the farm/gardening/ self-help site (GREEN HAMMY) is to show how-to guidance for projects that just about any one can build. In other words, you don't have to be a programmer, a carpenter, or a seasoned craftsman/woman. DIY should be easy. And it is. So, the new project I've personally undertaken is to construct a retro-game console shrine.

A retro-game console shrine is basically a chassis and container which glamorizes the old days of retro gaming glory. Such games include the old Atari, Sega, Commodore 64 computer, and even some of the older DOS games in Windows 3.0/95 (like the 2D first person action game, Doom! Heretic! Hexen!--and lesser known others like, Witchaven).

Now, I'm sure you'd all like to know how I built my retro-gamer console shrine. It is still in the process, but here's what we have so far:

A wooden box with section, plastic-grass, dark brown carpeting (screws and glue gun fodder), 1970's/ 1980's style veneer on the inside of back panel (gives that old, solid, calm brown color of the wall veneer used in home/ apartment interiors the 80's), red paint and black paint (brick wall pattern), and soon the consoles and controllers. I'll also add some old photos in memory of my step father and the games he brought home.

To lay the groundwork, I used foam board with a half-inch squared section paper topside. This allowed me to casually measure the section carpeting to install. This being the prototype, I'll be selling some handmade console shrines to those interested. Just visit 9portals.com and leave a comment in the Contact page if you'd like me to build you a retro-gamer shrine. Will be a bit pricey - materials are expensive and difficult to acquire in Japan (and there's almost always some extra charge upon delivery of materials that are imported to Japan [my end of the equation, of course]). But, now, you can easily build these shrines yourself. And yet, having one custom built by the author of myriad books of genius is something you might want to add to your collection.

Resources:
Author's DIY and Fiction Instant Downloads!
9Portals Books
9PRPG Games Free LInks

The Diablocleus

2011-05-08T08:22:00.001-07:00

Rumor only tells that such a diabolical stronghold between the known realms and prime evil exists in the ultimate void, just beyond reach of the chaos moon of Terra-X. The mechanical facility nested in the metallic cube of Terra-X has attracted an asteroid of chaotic powers as its new moon.

Mining colonies have unearthed a power from the chaos moon which has enabled them to build the Diablocleus, an artificial planet of evil laws, in the name of an ancient and diabolical god. It is said that a 10th greater portal of power has been discovered, and the arch to its evil energies creates a disturbance pattern across all universes, leaking its evil power into the natural realms (those places where natural laws are dominant are gradually subjucated to the powers of the Diablocleus). Nodes of chaos have become extraordinarily active across all planes where they exist. Chaos wizards have become suddenly much more powerful. Creatures and gods of chaos have seen an increase in thier power over the other forces in the cosmos. Diabolic portals now open randomly of their own upon numerous worlds, suddenly snatching up humans and other sentient beings, consuming the souls of their prey. Somehow, the power of chaos has been coalesced with the prime evil forces of the diabolical planes, thus causing a tear between realms, and ultimately making all other portals of power tremble. All blame for evil is now said to emenate from that nightmarish planet, the Diablocleus.

Other Facts:
The Diablocleus was is first mentioned in the book, Portal Crisis: Book of Doors, written by Thomas P. Walton.

Forecast:

A new adventure package featuring the Diablocleus at the heart of the campaign is expected to arrive in ebook format in late 2011 or early 2012. Diablocleus is likely to be mentioned in Necromancer's Guide to the Necroverse (ETA... to be announced), The Diablocleus handbook, and Cosmo Druid's Guide (to be announced a book on the druid wars against the unnatural forces who threaten earth, and the terrors launching upon the realms from the heart of the Diablocleus).

eBook Resources:
Thomas P. Walton's other works of fantasy-adventure, cyber-goth, and science fiction are available for Kindle, Sony, iPad, and pc/Mac.

See bit.ly/thomaspwalton for Kindle reader ebooks.
See 9portals.com/bookstore for PDF and full color ebooks.
Printed editions available from Lulu... see waltonbooks.blogspot.com and 9portals.blogspot.com for miscellaneous print to order pocket books and paper backs.

Ultimate Fantasy Adventure in Portal Crisis: Book of Doors

2011-05-08T08:10:00.001-07:00

Ultimate fantasy adventure begins with gamers sharing a story-telling experience at the gaming table. Nine Portals role-playing game enhancers and fantasy adventure maps are designed to bring out the joy of the game rather than boggle down players with standards. With the right configurations, and with the best intention for gaming table fun, Portal Crisis: Book of Doors, will cast enchantment over the players.

Read more about Portal Crisis: Book of Doors, complete fantasy-adventure game on 9portals.com!

New Books this Month... RPG, Science Fiction, and Fantasy History to Look Forward to!

2011-05-03T23:19:00.001-07:00

For my RPG enthusiasts and game hobbyists, you'll enjoy the new dungeon master configuration book underway. This book features a brand new system for playing multiple genre based paper and dice games. The game can also be used for tabletop (table-top, table top) role-playing and wargamming (war games with figures and dice). However, it's primarily intended for ordinary paper and dice games, and as a new way to enhance the overall game and fun for both the players and the dungeon master. You'll just have to wait and see.

Furthermore, we have another addition to RPG called Threshaven (you can read the description about Threhaven and mt. Threshaven on 9portals.com/About). This book features a short history, and an in-depth story with characters exploring the roots of their ancestry, only to find the key to the darkest corridors where their past is revealed--and the key to the valley which leads to Threshaven. This is the first book of the History of Threshaven, which is going to be a series of chronicles detailing the origins of the nine portals of power, both greater and lesser portals.

For those of you who haven't already read Portal Crisis: Book of Doors (a plot driven game package for multiple RPG's), get over to 9portals.com/bookstore and see the featured book. It's the only book on the site for ten dollars, and there's many others for only fifty cents. Please support nine portals by visiting 9portals.com today. Keep the Arnesson and Gygax dream alive by supporting independent role-playing game and fantasy art indies.

We'll shout out on twitter @9portals or @tommysbooks when the new books are ready to download. [note] As always, I try to make everything instantly available for download. However, 9portals.com requires that the purchaser receives and confirms email after purchase before a download link can be provided. The transaction is safe for Pay Pal and other forms of payment. If you have questions, fill out the contact form to ask me directly. Many thanks adventurous friends! Game on! Read something new today!