Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Just a quick question on "ordering" vat creatures from The Temple of Ksarul. How much would one spend on let's say a dozen Qol? How long would it take for the Temple to create them(unless of course they have stock ready to go)? Would such an order be pick-up, delivery, or by arrangement? Would you happen to have a price list of creatures available...?

I could see PCs making a pick-up, delivery, or collecting strays that somehow made it loose...Or all three(your kind of mischief and mayhem)!!! Thanks

H:0)

PS Hope I'm not being too lazy(I didn't check any of the books)...It just came to me as I caught up on the thread.

Originally Posted by Hrugga

Just a quick question on "ordering" vat creatures from The Temple of Ksarul. How much would one spend on let's say a dozen Qol? How long would it take for the Temple to create them(unless of course they have stock ready to go)? Would such an order be pick-up, delivery, or by arrangement? Would you happen to have a price list of creatures available...?

I could see PCs making a pick-up, delivery, or collecting strays that somehow made it loose...Or all three(your kind of mischief and mayhem)!!! Thanks

H:0)

"The Temple of Ksarul officially denies any knowledge of the mythical creatures known as Qol. Such things obviously do not exist."

"The first rule of Qol Club is that you do not talk about Qol Club."

This sort of thing would be handled at VERY high levels. "Drop Dead Before Reading," sort of thing.

Originally Posted by Bren

I bet you put safety railings in your med center. A building with safety railings immediately tells any savvy Star Wars aficionado that they are not in a galaxy far, far away.

Of course there are railings - how safe they are, I couldn't say. I mean, we know what the world of the Ancients looked like - Phil was right up front about it, on multiple occasions. I even have copies of the movies that were made by visitors to The Future. Plenty of photos, too.

And what never, ever, ceases to amaze me about Tekumel fans here locally, is that they can still visit The Future in person and see the artifacts of the Ancients close up and personal and don't seem to even know that they can. Admission free on Sundays, too!

(And yes, this is a tease!)

Originally Posted by David Johansen

You mean you haven't reduced it to hyper cognitive mmemonic structures in your mentat awareness yet?

For shame!

That sucker's gonna hunt you down and kill you one day.

Though actually, the society in Dune is a rational, intelligent, machine using society that has put tight social controls on a range of technologies from nuclear weapons to genetic engineering to permit the continuation of a cohesive society. It's a much better thought out setting than its inbred descendant Warhammer 40000 which is a construct of absurd extremes and the rule of cool.

The new movie shows that railings have been invented in the years after Return of the Jedi.

No, I just reach into the desk drawer and pull it out - it's a K+M Log Log, the top of the line aluminum one , and still in the belt scabbard. Still works, and I still know how to use it. it was a gift from my dad, who was an engineer of the old school - I still have his slide rule, the one that took us to the moon when he worked on the Apollo program.

Warhammer, as a world-setting, is designed to sell stuff. Viz:

Originally Posted by Hrugga

Just a quick question on "ordering" vat creatures from The Temple of Ksarul. How much would one spend on let's say a dozen Qol? How long would it take for the Temple to create them(unless of course they have stock ready to go)? Would such an order be pick-up, delivery, or by arrangement? Would you happen to have a price list of creatures available...?

I could see PCs making a pick-up, delivery, or collecting strays that somehow made it loose...Or all three(your kind of mischief and mayhem)!!! Thanks

H:0)

PS Hope I'm not being too lazy(I didn't check any of the books)...It just came to me as I caught up on the thread.

Oh, dear... Now you've really opened up the vat of serpents...

First off, an average PC is not going to be able to order up any of these artificial life-forms; you'd have to persuade your clan to persuade the temple, and you'd all want very, very much to keep the Imperium from finding out. I'm not saying that it does not happen, but you are going to have to be at a pretty high-powered level to try something like this. It's going to cost a lot of very high-value favors for somebody!

Now, having said that, yes, it's entirely too likely that you and your fellow PCs will be 'volunteered' for any of the three little jobs that you named - pick-ups, carry-outs, and the strays... And yes, it will be very, very dangerous, as the strays are just as powerful and smart as you are.

Think "Blade Runner", for an idea of what's afoot...

As for availability, there seems to be a constant of about thirty days between an order being placed and PCs getting killed in the Underworlds - draw your own conclusions.

We, here at the Temple of Vimuhla, do not dabble in these arcane technologies. We have our own solutions, thank you, and much nicer ones they are, too. Warmer, as well.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

"The Temple of Ksarul officially denies any knowledge of the mythical creatures known as Qol. Such things obviously do not exist."

"The first rule of Qol Club is that you do not talk about Qol Club."

This sort of thing would be handled at VERY high levels. "Drop Dead Before Reading," sort of thing.

What he said. In bucket-sized loads.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Like those.
And who says they aren't subcontracting?

Wouldn't surprise me; Lady Misenla was always very 'political'...

Now imagine: Trying to beat those creatures in a chase to the South Pole...
It's called "winter tales, AsenRG edition".

I just thought of something that might give you the creeps...
They're neither eternal, nor really born in a vat. The temple of Dlamelish, however, knows the process that was used to create them, and recreates it every generation for a new batch of servitors.

Yeah, probably, or they just order up a new batch every now the then from the Temple of Ksarul to replace losses, like the way the Temple of Ksarul orders up new Qol...

Happy thought, this...

I'm glad it pleases you!

Even I remember seeing "life vats" in a movie.
Hospital, South Pole, you say...
Scribbling in progress.

Cool. The base at the South Pole is run by an AI, which in turn acts through a staff of what amount to Yeleth / androids and a pretty good sized staff of repair and security robots like the Ru'un. One normally arrives by tubeway car at the smaller station, and in you go. One time, we arrived via one of the larger troop carriers, and were greeted by very polite Yeleth on the station platform.

Once in, you get assigned barracks, and turned loose to pretty much do what you want - the place is like any large military base, with all the usual installations. There's a pretty nice 'shopping plaza', where the replicators will produce anything you might want - but it all gets debited to your payroll account and you can wind up getting your enlistment time in the Space Marines extended by quite a bit. Which leads us to the hospital...

So my players are poking around in the base, and get themselves into the hospital complex. The AI senses that one of them is injured in some way, so the medical 'bots' collect her and separate her from the rest of the party; they get ushered into the 'famly / friends waiting room', and they look through the transparent wall as she gets placed in a transparent tube by the 'bots.

Panic erupts as the tube slowly fills with a viscous pink fluid; neither she or the party can do anything but have screaming fits as the fluid climbs higher and higher in the tube. I had a good half-hour of really panicking players, before the fluid finally closed over her head. In desperation, she took a deep breath, and found out she could breath quite easliy.

The rest of the party got dosed with tranquilizers by the 'bots. She came out of the vat feeling quite good, and missing the old injuries and scars she'd gone into the vat with...

All good F/SF tropes, and a great game!

Heh. We'll see how they'd deal with the AI when they get there.
How is the AI going to react to some enlisted Space Marines leaving with some piece of medical supplies?

Originally Posted by David Johansen

No, the Golden Path made humans that could survive the inevitable genocidal presentient robots but the robots remained an inevitable outcome of developing thinking machines.

Well yes, but they weren't nearly as genocidal.

Originally Posted by Hrugga

Just a quick question on "ordering" vat creatures from The Temple of Ksarul. How much would one spend on let's say a dozen Qol? How long would it take for the Temple to create them(unless of course they have stock ready to go)? Would such an order be pick-up, delivery, or by arrangement? Would you happen to have a price list of creatures available...?

I could see PCs making a pick-up, delivery, or collecting strays that somehow made it loose...Or all three(your kind of mischief and mayhem)!!! Thanks

H:0)

PS Hope I'm not being too lazy(I didn't check any of the books)...It just came to me as I caught up on the thread.

I see we're thinking among similar lines.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Of course there are railings - how safe they are, I couldn't say. I mean, we know what the world of the Ancients looked like - Phil was right up front about it, on multiple occasions. I even have copies of the movies that were made by visitors to The Future. Plenty of photos, too.

And what never, ever, ceases to amaze me about Tekumel fans here locally, is that they can still visit The Future in person and see the artifacts of the Ancients close up and personal and don't seem to even know that they can. Admission free on Sundays, too!

(And yes, this is a tease!)

But...but...but what about us non-local fans?

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Oh, dear... Now you've really opened up the vat of serpents...

First off, an average PC is not going to be able to order up any of these artificial life-forms; you'd have to persuade your clan to persuade the temple, and you'd all want very, very much to keep the Imperium from finding out. I'm not saying that it does not happen, but you are going to have to be at a pretty high-powered level to try something like this. It's going to cost a lot of very high-value favors for somebody!

Now, having said that, yes, it's entirely too likely that you and your fellow PCs will be 'volunteered' for any of the three little jobs that you named - pick-ups, carry-outs, and the strays... And yes, it will be very, very dangerous, as the strays are just as powerful and smart as you are.

Think "Blade Runner", for an idea of what's afoot...

As for availability, there seems to be a constant of about thirty days between an order being placed and PCs getting killed in the Underworlds - draw your own conclusions.

We, here at the Temple of Vimuhla, do not dabble in these arcane technologies. We have our own solutions, thank you, and much nicer ones they are, too. Warmer, as well.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

"The Temple of Ksarul officially denies any knowledge of the mythical creatures known as Qol. Such things obviously do not exist."

"The first rule of Qol Club is that you do not talk about Qol Club."

This sort of thing would be handled at VERY high levels. "Drop Dead Before Reading," sort of thing.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

What he said. In bucket-sized loads.

Heh, sounds like lots of fun!

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

"The Temple of Ksarul officially denies any knowledge of the mythical creatures known as Qol. Such things obviously do not exist."

"The first rule of Qol Club is that you do not talk about Qol Club."

This sort of thing would be handled at VERY high levels. "Drop Dead Before Reading," sort of thing.

Gottcha...!!! The last message will self-destruct!!!

H ;0)

Originally Posted by David Johansen

The new movie shows that railings have been invented in the years after Return of the Jedi.

I didn't think the bridge that Han fell from had railings though. But I've only seen the movie once so I may be remembering. Maybe there are a few prototype railings?

Odd things about safety in space. No railings in Star Wars...seat belt technology being lost in Star Trek's Eugenics Wars and never rediscovered.