Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Oh, deary me. Killing a surrendered prisoner is very, very unchivalrous. (also not very "goody two shoes Lawful Good," but that game doesn't use D&D style alignment.)

I do wonder what Sir Nigel Blackthorne was about, he usually is a most chivalrous and worshipful knight.

Yeah, I said the same thing when I heard about the incident. From what I gather, the party did discuss what to do with the prisoners, then killed them mostly because they couldn't think of anything better to do with them. About all it got them was a bad reputation and cheesed off the rest of the staff, so it's going to be hard to keep everybody from retaliating. We'll see, I suppose.

The good news is that the guy in charge of my people got killed for trying to take on heavy cavalry with light infantry, in the open with no cover. Saves me an execution for being stupid.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

For those wondering I know the game and the players Chirine is talking about. Some of them (though quite nice people) have this attitude rather like they're in a slightly more violent Disney movie -- "anybody against us must be bad because we're good because we're us."

Frankly and in confidence, I'm looking forward to them getting a few short, sharp shocks, as Francis Urquhart would say.

I think you're right, from what I'm seeing. I also don't think that they've ever faced a live opponent in an RPG; but then, I survived Fred's World. Personally, I think they're in for an Old School Revival time of it, but not in the way that most people would think.

My, oh, my; I do think they're in for an education.

Originally Posted by Neshm hiKumala

Chirine,

Any information on "The First Founder" (supposedly, the first human who ever set foot on T�kumel), his "ghostly" sons and the ruins/location of his original dwelling?

The Sourcebook mentions that his house is ruined if not completely destroyed, but it also says that some people know where it was located and that the First Founder's ghosts still haunts that area, seemingly cursed by the Ssu as "the despoiler of their world".

What do you know about it, if anything?
Thanks.

Well, we found out about the First Founder when Phil plopped the copy of the manuscript of "Man of Gold" down on the table; he'd kept it secret until he sent it off to DAW. After that, it was all little hints here and there, over the years.

As ner as we can make out, the First Founder is the Lord of Humanspace who did the terraforming of Tekumel. He (and its only a supposition that he's a he, by the way) did all the contracts with the various races and beings to actually did the work. the Ngoro, for example, were hired as guardians - and since they are colony creatures, the Ngoro you meet may very well be a the colony that dates back to the time of the Ancients. We think that the Brotherhood of the Half-Human is also part of his legacy, along with some of the more recondite bits of ancient technology.

I have my own theory as to where his residence is located; it's one of our adventures. (Hoo, boy, and it was An Adventure.) As for the 'ghosts', what you see are manifestations of other-planar energy, not 'spirits' in the sense we use 'ghost'; people and events that involve a lot of energy create 'corona effects' where images of other places and times can be seen. There are a number of locations on Tekumel where this happens; there's a ruined Engsvanyali palace up in the Desert of Sighs where a party has been going on for centuries. Big heavy-duty 'curses' will do this thing as well; the person 'cursed' can be trapped in an infinite time loop, for example.

So, what little we do know is that this person was hired by the Hokun, he and his people fought and repressed the Ssu and Hlyss (and some others, like the Churstalli), they did the terra-forming, there was some sort of falling out with the Hokun, and he left stuff - like the Egg of the World, the planetary defense base on Kashi, and quite possibly Avanthar the Mighty herself - all over Tekumel for us to find. Think Rassilon, if you will; I can only note that Phil was a big Dr. Who fan.

I'm sorry I don't have more; have you looked in the Blue Room Archive?

Originally Posted by Hrugga

As far as creatures that speak go, I would think that they speak the language of the area where they are encountered...?
Of course I'm sure there are those special cases that do not fit the norm.

H:0)

Yes. And any creatures found in the Underworld usually speak the Secret Tongue of the Priests of Ksarul, too, which is why we all took it. (Phil was very annoyed, but rolled with it.) The Gachiyal, the dragons, tend to speak Irkutz, 'Ancient Nlyssa' in EPT. The dragons of Blackmoor also speak this particular language; make of that what you will...

Originally Posted by d(sqrt(-1))

Can I just say that I'd not seen much of Catherwood's work before, so when you mentioned it the other day I went to look it up and as a result have had to buy a large expensive art-book from Amazon covering his illustrations... so thanks, sort of... (mutters into his beer glass)

Well, you're very welcome; it's one of the books that Phil would use as his own inspiration and references. At the risk of more muttering, may I also suggest the Taschen 'Icons' editions of Piranesi and Napoleon's "Description of Egypt", and Tatiana Proskuriakoff's "An Album of Maya Architecture"? Phil knew the lady, who was one of the people who finally translated the Mayan glyphs...

These books are some of the 'Ur-books' that Phil was inspired by - he owned a number of them - and which he showed to us to illustrate how he viewed his creation. (There's a lot of the Pharaohs and the Maya in Tekumel; I'd like to think they'd be pleased.)

Originally Posted by d(sqrt(-1))

Aha, ok that sounds good, thank you for the details, I shall make good use of them.

Yes, it ran over three sessions, and we have some good characters, a hunter with a trained Kuni, who is massively in debt (the PC not the Kuni), a Ksarul priest addicted to hnequ and somewhat deaf due to a lab explosion who used all his starting cash to buy an 8 bearer palanquin (with a relief carrying team of another 8 bearers), because obviously appearing important makes you important, a warrior of Vimhula with hennaed red hair and a mystical outlook, another is a warrior of Karakan who seems to break swords regularly and an Aridani farmer follower of Avanthe who is the toughest of the lot!

Wonderful!

We learned, the hard way, never to pick on farmers.

Originally Posted by Greentongue

I have a Play by Post "Tekumel" game that I have done that with EPT.
This month will make one year of the game.
If I can do that in a format that drops players like flys, you should have no problem.
What's the worst that can happen?
=

Congratulations! May I look in on the thing, if that would be all right?

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

"You get a mixed bag in any convention burg."

Ain't that the truth!

(As an aside, I've been offered an option on Pete Galylord's Ancients. I'm pretty heartbroken over it; I don't think I can make a decent offer, but I'd love to see these figures get used again. They've been sitting in a box for ages, I guess. Scrubys, too, and I think 40mm; the infamous elephant isn't there; Pete seems to have disposed of it about twenty years ago. Advice?)

I'd like to say that I'm both astounded and pleased at how this thread has been going; I'm very happy to be able to answer your questions. I guess that I'm a little surprised that our antics, all those years ago, still amaze and amuse; we didn't think we were creating history, or doing some sort of recondite artform - we were sitting around a Ping-Pong ball table, exploring an amazing world and having a lot of fun doing it...

Thank you all, once again, for your participation in this thread - you, and your interest in Phil's Tekumel, are what's keeping it and his memory alive.