Apr 2, 2010 9:28 PM

The Sluggish Flow of the Quill

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

First of all, I feel like I should apologize for the infrequent updates here. Most of my creative energies are currently devoted to my upcoming Dolmen Island campaign. It's positively
vanilla compared to the full-on bizarre mode I get into here in Quantique! Why not just run a campaign here? you might be thinking. Well, part of it is a lack of cartography, and part of
it is a lack of player interest.

I'd like to produce (or arrange to have produced) some quality maps of one or more of the Weirdlands. I haven't approached anyone in particular just yet about this plan.
The majority of the local players I know at present aren't into the particular flavor of Quantique. I'm still working on assembling a Q-Team of at least four players. The more
table time Quantique sees, the faster it will develop.

(Image by John Coulthart)

Mar 18, 2010 12:52 PM

The Lonely Children of Gariah

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

As stated earlier, hunger and thirst cannot exist in Nacaal. These are the conditions of the Blue Hell's unnatural reality. In order to even attempt to consume something -- say a healing
potion -- a PC must make a successful CON check to keep it down. Failure indicates that the substance has been disgorged (any attempts to salvage the stuff will be in vain). On the
bright side, visitors will never have to be concerned about running low on rations.

Birth-rates among the native creatures of Nacaal are -- by our standards -- incredibly low. The majority of such reproduction consists of asexual budding -- an exceedingly long and
usually painful process. Many creatures -- such as the loathsome Yayago -- recede to the fetid caverns below the plane's surface to carry out this process in solitude.

Plant-life is sparsely distributed across the ragged landscape and is limited to knee-high weeds and black-leafed shrubs. In the dank areas beneath the Radiant Waste of Kyaat, vast
colonies of fungus thrive on the moist, pestilent vapors that flow up from lightless abysms where the long-dead corpses of forgotten monsters decay eternally.

The most wide-ranging inhabitants of Nacaal are the giants known as the Utter-Humanoids. These are the offspring of the Dark Mother, Gariah -- a vast (some estimates put her at a
half-mile wide), floating horror that drifts slowly over Nacaal's weird landscape. Silent, bloated, like a pregnant storm-cloud swathed in glistening white flesh -- Gariah surveys all that
transpires in the Blue Hell from several thousand feet above with goat-like eyes that number in the thousands.

Every so often, the Dark Mother pauses to eject ball-like masses of tissue. These fall to the surface of Nacaal where they splatter into greyish heaps. Very gradually these amorphous
pools of flesh begin to resemble humanoid beings. The arms and legs are typically the first areas to be refined. Several rudimentary, lidless eyes will eventually congeal on or near the
thing's head. These herald the giant's Awakening. No two of these creatures look precisely the same. Extra limbs and heads are quite common.

A child of Gariah exists only to incorporate other beings into itself. Among the Utter-Humanoids -- who rarely congregate -- size is valued above all things. For once a child reaches a
certain proportion, it will be reabsorbed into the Dark Mother. The Utter-Humanoids hold this ritual -- which they call Qug -- to be a sacred affair, the end-goal of all Humanoid
existence.

Utter-Humanoids are collectors. With their spools of string and needles of bone -- harvested and crafted from the guts of unfortunate yayagos -- they seek to sew other creatures onto
their bodies. This proximity will allow the Humanoid's physiology to slowly incorporate the victim into itself. Its body, its mind and its memories will become new aspects of the Utter-
Humanoid. Typically the Children of Gariah employ a mild intoxicant mist brewed from the rough grasses of Kyaat to lull their captives into a kind of half-sleep. This allows the Utter-
Humanoids time to effectively sew them onto their bodies. Its an incredibly emotional experience for the giants, for their minds are flooded with the traumas and triumphs of their victims
during the sewing process. This is a critical component of the incorporation -- when the minds of the Humanoid and the victim mingle.

It's uncertain exactly how many of these beings roam the Blue Hell at any one time. At its most massive, an Utter-Humanoid can be nearly eight-hundred feet tall, with thousands of
exacting little limbs to carry out its handiwork.
Mar 14, 2010 1:16 AM

Zikkurath Nacaal

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

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In the Blue Hell, hunger and thirst do not exist. A man may grow old, perhaps older than he might in a more sane realm, yet he will never have need for bread, and his throat will never
grow dry. To the starving wretches of other worlds this all might sound like some beggar's paradise. But these conditions -- stretched over the course of countless aeons -- have
produced the singular nightmare that is Nacaal.

Those exiles doomed to live among the ragged hills and junk-heaps of the Blue Hell spend their remaining years wandering. There are no havens here, no restful places. All native
creatures -- what few there are -- have made rest impossible. Outsiders note that there is no natural rhythm to their behavior, for no instincts bind them to the landscape. They act out of
a primal madness that lacks all boundary. Their agendas, if we can recognize them as such, are founded in cruelty and caprice.

The venom-beaked Yayago. The Utter-Humanoids who laugh and cry as they sew your drugged companions onto their bodies. These things and more stalk the trailways and the
long-forgotten darks.

What few wanderers who have survived long enough to penetrate the Radiant Waste of Kyaat tell of a place called the Zikkurath Nacaal. Reared before the dawn of Reason, this
lonely temple exerts an eldritch pull on all sentient beings around it. Anything within a half-mile of the Zikkurath must save vs spell or find itself compelled to go to it, to climb its 847
steps, and to pass its Lesser Threshold.

Beyond this we know very little. Certain fragments of the Book of Seven Paths mention "a many-headed singer" (presumably a god) who gnaws at "the Golden Other" and is in turn
"unreasoned" by It. These may be the Zikkurath's masters, or possibly daemonic wanderers imprisoned there at some point in the distant past.

Woe to any who should live to venture far into the Radiant Waste.

(Inspired by all that is Black and Zigguratty.)

Feb 3, 2010 11:45 PM

The Art of Johfra

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

Johannes Franciscus Gijsbertus van den Berg (aka Johfra Bosschart, 1919-1998) was a Dutch surrealist who described his work as a mixture "of psychology, religion, the Bible,
astrology, antiquity, magic, witchcraft, mythology and occultism." As you can see, he painted like a Dali high on Space-Mead.

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Jan 31, 2010 2:16 PM

Sidereal Conduits and Tekaryon's Disruptor

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

Most laypersons with any knowledge of transdimensional travel will assume that the trip through a gate from one plane to the next is simply a matter of stepping across a threshold. This is
a common misconception. The apparent lack of distance between plane a and plane b is an illusion created by the gate itself. In fact, these points in space/time lie vast distances apart,
separated by the dim, spectral gulfs of the Astral Plane. Every mage worth his salt knows that.

Tekaryon and the Ghorl

The arch-wizard Tekaryon devoted much of his aeons-long existence to the study of the Astral Plane, gates and the sidereal conduits that connect them. His vaunted career as an astral
metaphysician had a decidedly unremarkable beginning. After some business with an artificer in the Candarian Drift, he passed through a gate leading back to his home-plane of Telvaine.
As he was depositing his cyalantine ingots in the vault below his manse, Tekaryon made a startling discovery. He was certain that when he left the Drift, all twenty-seven of the ingots
were carried on his person. As was the custom, both he and the artificer had verified the amount at the conclusion of their contract. And yet, now three were unaccounted for. Where
had the ingots gone? He had taken precautions -- no thief could have penetrated the arch-wizard's cloak of spells while he was in the Drift. It was inconceivable. The only credible
explanation was that the ingots had vanished as he passed through the gate.

Being something of a miser, Tekaryon was determined to unravel how he had been parted from his wealth. He began with a careful examination of the telemantic properties of gates, an
arcane subject that had been hitherto neglected for untold aeons. In fact, the construction of permanent gates has become something of a lost art.

Tekaryon identified three important properties:

A gate is composed of two thresholds and the sidereal conduit that connects them.
A gate is designed to accelerate time in order to make the transition from one plane to the next appear instantaneous. If time was slowed down to its normal rate within the
conduit, the traveler would literally have to trek for aeons in order to reach his destination.
Within the conduit, travelers normally appear as rapidly-moving glowing orbs.

A hypothesis began to form in Tekaryon's mind, and he realized that in order to test it it would be necessary to somehow counteract the gate's time-warping property. His hypothesis --
more of a suspicion really -- led to the development of Tekaryon's Disruptor, a magical device that controls the rate of time around its user.

The use of his Disruptor allowed the arch-wizard to make many important discoveries. Among these was evidence that the sidereal conduits were not really straight passages at all --
they curled, intersected, formed strange cul-de-sacs.

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He also made another provocative find: The conduits are actually inhabited by a race of cyclopean reptile men known as the Ghorl. How long the Ghorl had been dwelling undetected in
this cryptic maze was uncertain, and -- try as he might -- Tekaryon was unable to capture one of the skittish creatures and question him on the matter. Several times during the course of
his career the arch-wizard stumbled upon what he came to call ghorl-holds where the reptile men had stashed their hoards. Just as Tekaryon had surmised, the Ghorl had been pinching
the purses of astral travelers since time out of mind -- taking a little bit here, a little bit there. By virtue of their uncanny temporal talents, these thieves are able to pause a traveler in
mid-stream as he moves from one threshold to the next and take from him what they will. All this happens instantaneously from the traveler's perspective -- he never actually sees what's
going on. Among the Ghorl there are apparently rules for how much one is allowed to take, and these by-laws allowed the creatures to maintain their secrecy. Until Tekaryon, that is.

Even so, only several Disruptors -- all based on the arch-wizard's original design -- are known to exist. How often they are put to use can only be speculated on. And so the Ghorl in all
probability continue to pilfer, and their holds, one imagines, continue to expand.
Jan 30, 2010 6:56 PM

Rogues Gallery

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

These images are by French illustrator Philippe Druillet. Druillet has long been associated with the S&S scene in France, having been a contributor to Métal Hurlant in the 70s/80s (most
recognizably, perhaps, in the H. P. Lovecraft Special) and responsible for some of the covers to the French versions of the de Camp/Carter Conan collections. I think the character
concepts and paintings below fit the feel/flavor of Quantique beautifully. It's quite easy to imagine these freaks slumming around the Weirdlands.

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Jan 30, 2010 9:59 AM

Yggoa, the Intoxicating Crystal Bark of Ys

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

Yggoa is a quasi-magical substance with intoxicating, memory-expanding properties. Typically bought and sold in glass vials (commonly called punks), the stuff appears to be an
iridescent blue powder. Yggoa has three properties:

When smoked, it expands the user's memory. Magic-Users will find that their normal number of memory slots has doubled. The effect will last 1d8 hours, followed by crippling
headaches that require a solid day of bed-rest to recover from.
When inhaled, it allows the user to experience the most immediate memories of those around him. If he turns his focus to one creature, he can see all that it has experienced --
including its dreams -- over the course of the last day and night.
It is highly, highly addictive. After using it once, there is a 10% chance that one will become hopelessly addicted to yggoa. For each successive use, this chance doubles.
Addiction is harmless so long as the user has a steady supply of yggoa -- he must partake of the crystal powder at least once per day. Withdrawal induces severe panic,
tremors, and ultimately madness.*

Yggoa is harvested from the crystal tree-folk of Ys. These creatures are native to the Hypnotic Valley region. It is unclear how the Masters of the Pleasure-Gardens originally came into
possession of tree-folk acorns, but they have built an entire industry around the production of yggoa. Tree-folk slaves live in abominable conditions and are subject to frequent de-barking
-- a process that they find exceedingly painful. Not surprisingly, the Pleasure-Gardens are host to a whole motley assortment of addicts, many of them former wizards who have been
degraded to indentured servants.

---------------
*More info on how I intend to treat madness in Quantique is around the corner. Let's just say I want it to be a playable condition.
Jan 28, 2010 12:48 AM

The Old Ones

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be. Not in the spaces we know, but between them, They walk serene and primal,
undimensioned and to us unseen.

In Quantique's version of the D&D cosmos (which is a mouthful, so from hereon I will refer to it as the Quantique Continuum or QC) the eldest of the 'gods' are typically referred to as
the Old Ones. The epithet is a reference to the idea that these entities predate all other forms of sentient life, both mortal and immortal [though among wizards it is now widely accepted
that the Old Ones exist outside time]. These beings have many names and take on many guises. Their powers and abilities are far beyond the most powerful of wizards. They are
immortal in the most absolute sense, for they can never be slain and exist simultaneously in all times and realities. And yet, the Old Ones are not all-powerful. Even they are bound by
certain rules and restrictions, as described in the Elder Key of Yebaoth.

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The rarefied hyper-reality of the Old Ones -- variously referred to as the Gulf of Dz'yan, Sharnoth, and the Primal Chaos -- is a black spiral vortex said to lie beyond angled space. Not
even the most resilient of mortal minds can exist in this zone, and even immortals are loathe to venture there.

While some of these beings are worshiped -- Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath and Hastur, to name a few -- most of the Old Ones 'sleep' through the aeons in the grip of a profound
torpor. Cults dedicated to daemons* are far more common. Historically it has been the principle aim of mad and power-hungry wizards to attempt to wake an Old One and be rewarded
for their service. It is unknown whether any of them have been successful in this regard.

---------------
*Daemons are a class of genii-like beings subordinate to the Old Ones -- in the same sense that microbes are subordinate to elephants.

(Image by Rowena)
Jan 27, 2010 8:44 PM

What are the Green Lords?

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

Theories abound as to the origins of the wizards who rule Quantique. Perhaps unsurprisingly -- given the Lords' secretive habits -- they have been rather unclear on this point themselves.
Various stories circulate among those merchants and extraplanar dilettantes who have had business in Xaicara. Here are some widely distributed rumors:

The Lords are the last of an immortal race who ran afoul of the Old Ones and as punishment were cursed with the hideous eukomorphic forms they now possess.
The Lords were human wizards when they came to Quantique, but aeons of exposure to the Eye of Temir has altered their bodies irrevocably.
The Lords escaped from a region of the Outer Dark where extraplanar travel was forbidden.
The Lords are aspects of Yog-Sothoth.

Given what we do know about the rulers of Quantique, aside from the obvious fact of their grotesque appearance -- their dietary habits, their speech patterns, their odd behavior -- most
would be inclined to assume that, whatever these things are, they could never have been human.

(Image by Moebius)

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Jan 27, 2010 6:24 PM

Cosmology

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

Recently James M over at Grognardia discussed the subject of planes/planets and how these ideas were going to be incorporated into his Dwimmermount campaign. "One of the
problems I've always had with AD&D's planes is that they were too closely tied to alignments and the gods," he says.

I totally agree, which is why -- for the purposes of Quantique -- I've degraded D&D's traditional cosmology from a true representation to a hypothetical model of questionable merit.
In the world(s) of the Lords of Xaicara, the question of how the dimensions are organized is something metaphysicians have struggled with for aeons. Many competing theories vie for
dominance within wizardly circles, and only rarely has any one view prevailed -- and usually not for long. In the Quantique continuum, alignment is a matter of personal ethics and not a
cosmic struggle. The gods are daemonic natives of a higher order of reality -- their motives are often inscrutable or just plain incomprehensible to the mortal crowd. But they do not run
the show, so to speak.

As for this business of planes vs planets -- I rather like both visions. While it's true that planes are more abstract, it's an abstraction that appeals to my sense of wonder. I can easily see
certain sectors of the Outer Dark corresponding to the orderly planets-and-suns model, while other areas remain less defined. Like old, dark Quantique, these zones are decadently
burbling away the aeons, set apart from the arch-dimensions where their inhabitants can indulge their peculiar appetites...
Jan 27, 2010 3:39 PM

Borders

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

Quantique is not, nor has it ever been, a proper reality. It has more in common with, say, the other end of a bag of holding* than the world of Krynn. It is certainly not a demi-plane,
despite what some metaphysicians have to say about the matter. Better to call it a back alley of the Outer Dark -- one among countless such places scattered throughout all of time and
space. While not exactly secret, Quantique has maintained its distance from the conflicts that embroil the various arch-dimensions of the Prime Material.

Part of what makes Quantique unusual is the fuzziness of its boundaries. This condition has allowed the Lords of Xaicara to incorporate adjacent territories into the very skel of
Quantique. But these annexations are not, as a rule, perfect -- sometimes not even stable. Traveling from Ireu to Leng is not the same as traveling from Cormyr to the Dalelands, for
example. One must actually cross a metaphysical border in order to make the transition from Ireu-ness to Leng-ness.

The line at which Ireu ends and Leng begins is an astral border. Visually, it appears to be a simple matter of stepping out of a green, grassy savanna of near-deafening insect-noises and
making one's way up an imposing cliff-wall to the gray plateau-land beyond. But the transition from one weirdland to the next only appears seamless. In reality the magical bonds holding
these places together are incredibly tenuous. So tenuous, in fact, that there is a 35% chance of accidentally 'falling' out of Quantique and passing into the Astral Plane when crossing a
border between two weirdlands. Additionally, things native to the Astral have been known to lair in these border areas in order to prey on unwary travelers.

---------------
*According to certain accounts, some adventurers have actually broken through bags of holding only to find themselves stranded in the Weirdlands.
Jan 26, 2010 10:04 AM

Sounding the Depths of (Vancian) Magic

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

"If the magic had been done by fairies: perhaps, perhaps not. By sandestin magic, your coins are gold and will remain gold. In fact, the sandestin may well have
purloined them from King Casmir's strongbox, to save himself effort."
-- from Jack Vance's Madouc

After some initial misgivings and many years of toying around with variants, I've come to accept that the Vancian Magic System and D&D make
a smashing combination. In fact, I think magic in D&D could stand to be even more Vancian.

How so? you ask, gentle reader. Read on, says I.

In The Dying Earth, Vance provides some insight into the nature of magic spells and spell-casting. Gary Gygax would later systematize the
concept introduced in this passage:

"Mazirian made a selection from his books and with great effort forced five spells upon his brain: Phandaal's Gyrator, Felojun's Second Hypnotic
Spell, The Excellent Prismatic Spray, The Charm of Untiring Nourishment, and the Spell of the Omnipotent Sphere. This accomplished, Mazirian
drank wine and retired to his couch."

Later in Rhialto the Marvellous and the Lyonesse Trilogy, Vance's wizards employ daemonic indentured servants called sandestins to do their
dirty work. To give you a better idea of how all this is supposed to work, I've turned to an RPG that dips much deeper into the Vancian wells
than what we've seen with D&D. Pelgrane Press' Dying Earth RPG has this to say about sandestins:

Sandestins are immortal creatures of pure magic who produce any simple magical effect in an instant. Sandestins are fully sapient and aware of their powers. Though
they may be summoned fairly easily, sandestins may only be coerced though use of a chug. Sandestins fear and loathe chugs, and they respect anyone who can
control one. But summoning a sandestin without a chug present invites disaster, unless the sandestin already knows that the magician can command chugs. Sandestins
can easily duplicate any effect produced by any other magical entity. They can transport someone through time and space, slay any living being with a gesture, and
shrink a person to the size of a gnat. However, they endure the same limits experienced by other magical entities. Sandestins cannot create enchanted items. Also,
effects produced by sandestins are just as limited in range and duration as any spell. If a magician orders a sandestin to destroy a mountain, it must do so one
outcropping at a time.

Known facts about chugs:

The chug is an otherworldly entity capable of striking absolute terror into whatever passes for the hearts of sandestins (q.v.). Arch-Magicians summon chugs in order
to enforce on sandestins the terms of their indenture agreements. Released in the presence of a sandestin, a chug will immediately leap upon it and begin to suffocate
it. The sandestin has but a few moments to yelp out its cries of acquiescence before the chug either annihilates it completely, or subjects it to torture, inducing agony
that observers can only imagine. Like the sandestins they terrorize, chugs are of mutable appearance. They may alter their forms to more efficiently torture a particular

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sandestin. So if the sandestin takes the form of a long, blue, legless lizard, the chug might become a monstrous, floating face with enormous nostrils. It would then use
the nostrils to suck the sandestin up into it, where it can leech away its essence or prick it with a million sharp tendrils. Chugs seem less intelligent, more single-
minded, and dramatically more malign than sandestins. They do not seem to interact with the mortal world, or work great magics, except in furtherance of their efforts
to prey upon sandestins.

So essentially the advanced Vancian wizard has two types of daemonic agents at his disposal: (a) one capable of great magical feats, and (b) one that must be mastered in order to
intimidate the first type.

Rules for binding and summoning entities are already part of the D&D canon. In The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (Booklet 2, pp 21-26) Gygax presents the Demonicon of Iggwilv,
which consists of three clerical spells and six magic-user spells:

Abjure [C 4]
Exaction [C 7]
Henley's Digit of Disruption [C 7]
Dismissal [M-U 5]
Dolor [M-U 5]
Ensnarement [M-U 6]
Banishment [M-U 7]
Torment [M-U 7]
Binding [M-U 8]

Geoffrey McKinney returned to these ideas in Carcosa, and why not? This is the next logical step for the Vancian Magic System. Exactly why it was never incorporated into standard
AD&D is a mystery. (Perhaps too much like real-world occultism to avoid the full fury of the Moms Against Cool Stuff organizations?)

Currently I'm working out the details of a grimoire that will be called the Lesser Key of Yebaoth. The idea is to revisit Gygax's Demonomicon and incorporate the chug/sandestin
aspects found in Vance's fiction (though I think I'll come up with more generic names for each).
Jan 26, 2010 2:18 AM

Taking a page from the FFC

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

My copy of Lawrence Schick's Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games arrived this morning. It's actually a bound copy from
the reference section of the library at Ithaca College. As far as I can tell, the thing must have been referenced rarely, if at all. So far I've really enjoyed
the short pieces by Ken St. Andre and Dave Arneson. Reminiscing about First Fantasy Campaign, Arneson says:

"In the first campaign, all the PCs were assumed to have come through a time/space warp into the strange new world of Blackmoor. Thus, the players
could not expect to know everything, and all information from the locals would be related by the referee."

This is a well known trope in weird fiction -- specifically Almuric, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and "The City of the Singing Flame" and
its sequel come to mind. More recently this is something Blair has capitalized on in Planet Algol, and I'm thinking it's a great way to introduce PCs into
the world of Quantique as well.

Arneson was kind enough to give his players a fighting chance and allowed their characters to build firearms in Blackmoor... if they could describe the
process. I'm less interested in my players' knowledge of metallurgy than Dave probably was, so I'll likely take this idea in a different direction. I'll allow
my PCs to enter Quantique with weapons that would be appropriate to their character concepts, but only with a limited amount of ammunition. So
once those clips are spent, your Uzi will make for a fine (if stunted) cudgel. Stuff like light sabers and solar-powered rayguns is more problematic. I
may have to mull over this for a bit.
Jan 25, 2010 2:15 PM

Yog-Sothoth and Quantique

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

Religious tolerance is not a virtue embraced by the Lords of Xaicara. It is not a question of belief -- for the Lords are aware of god-like powers and have even had dealings with some of
them. It is a matter of sovereignty. Give a god an inch, and he'll take a league -- or so the saying goes. The Lords have taken great pains to block any daemonic interlopers who
would enter Quantique -- although historical records will show that these measures have not always been adequate to keep the Old Ones out.

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The only exception to the Lords' divine prohibition is the entity known as Yog-Sothoth. The particulars of the arrangement between Xaicara and the dark god are not known. It is
believed that Yog-Sothoth watches the pathways to and from Quantique and, if necessary, bars the way. Via the Maze of Seven Thousand Crystal Frames Yog-Sothoth can be
approached directly, though few are willing to make the journey in exchange for whatever knowledge might be gained.
Jan 25, 2010 11:14 AM

Weirdlands Diagram

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

The diagram below illustrates the general skel* of Quantique. Only the major weirdlands have been depicted.

1. Ireu
2. Leng
3. The Tanarian Hills
4. Nacaal, the Blue Hell
5. Yaddith
6. The Lake of Glass
7. Ys
8. Agartha
9. The Panopticon

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10. Maze of the Seven Thousand Crystal Frames

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*Skel: A term employed by metaphysical structuralists to describe the architecture of a given reality.
Jan 24, 2010 10:45 PM

Natural Denizens of Ireu

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

[A note on the name: Ireu is pronounced "eer-oo" and has absolutely nothing to do with ancient Ireland, though the two places share some qualities, such as a general
greenness and lack of cities.]

Ireu is the origin of all Quantique and predates the appearance of the other weirdlands. It was to this place, so many aeons ago, that the wizards who would become the Lords of Xaicara
came. Beneath the eerie green radiance of the Eye of Temir, the Lords found little more than a windswept grassland -- a vacant halfway-house reality, all but forgotten by its nameless
maker. Yet certain flora and fauna are to be found here. It would not be overstating the facts to say that insect-kind thrives among the stalks and rushes. Not to mention the abundant
variety of ambulatory fungoids who help sustain the insects and constantly vex them. Here are four examples of life native to Ireu:

Phraints. The evolution of the Phraint has been meticulously guided by the Lords of Xaicara and their acolytes, so that it is difficult to say what pre-Xaicaran phraints might
have been like with any certainty. As it is, those phraints found within the floating fastness are far more sophisticated than their wild, grass-eating cousins. Physically and
mentally the uncouth ground-dwellers are clearly outmatched by their enslaved Xaicaran counterparts. Most phraints found wandering in Ireu will be hive drones of
less-than-human intelligence.
Behemoths. The behemoths are massive creatures vaguely resembling giant, wingless moths. Measuring perhaps twenty feet in length, these hairy quasi-lepidoptera are
voracious carnivores -- truly the t-rexes of bug-kind. Most are infested with dung-midges (see below).
Blackneedles. The blackneedle is like a cross between a mosquito and a night terror. Adults are about half the size of a full-grown man, exceedingly quick, and armed with
razor-sharp probes that exude a paralytic as the creatures drain their victims of fluids. Given that these beasts evolved to prey on creatures with exoskeletons, soft vertebrates
like ourselves are especially vulnerable to their attacks.
Dung-midges. The dung-midge is one of the most bothersome pests to be found in Ireu. Like a small, cyclopic monkey with tentacles for limbs, the creature uses its lidless,
rudimentary eye to locate any animals larger than itself. Behemoths are their favored targets. Once a dung-midge has securely fastened itself to its new host, it will begin to die
and expel a creamy, stinking substance that resembles animal waste. When the midge's 'dung' has hardened to a nice crust, the thing injects its egg-spores as its dessicated
body begins to peel away. Meanwhile, under the safety of their crusty cradle, the undeveloped midges begin to feed on the surface of their hosts. This goes on till the creatures
reach maturity and burst forth on their own. The effect on the host's body is devastating over time, but many larger creatures can live to see several cycles of infestation.

Jan 24, 2010 6:50 PM

The Weirdlands: A Cursory Glance

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

The exact number of regions -- or weirdlands, as they are sometimes known -- that have been incorporated into the metaphysical skel of Quantique is uncertain. Most can be reached
through normal overland travel. Others are far less accessible, and entry into those places will require unusual methods. Here are some of the more widely known lands that comprise
Quantique currently:

Ireu. The central province and origin of all Quantique, where hangs the fastness of Xaicara. A region of rolling, windswept grasslands inhabited by massive insects and fungal
vermin.
Leng. A nearly barren plateau to the north of Ireu. Leng is the homeland of the subhuman Tcho-Tchos, vicious cannibals whose distant ancestors erected ancient Sarkomand.
The ruins of this once-great city can be found near Leng's southern border.
Naacal. A sort of waste-dump to the south of Ireu where enemies of the Lords of Xaicara are sometimes banished. Its other name is the Blue Hell -- a reference to the strange
sands that drift across its craggy, junk-littered landscape and spill into Naacal's fissures.
The Tanarian Hills. A stretch of purple jungle to the east of Ireu. Phraint slaves are regularly dispatched to the Hills to gather valuable herbs and minerals. They risk exposure
to the Purple Fever, among other hazards.
Yaddith. A monster-haunted tract of forestland to the west of Ireu. Wild gugs and mewlips run amok here. In the depths of Yaddith can be found the psychic city of Rix, an
invisible labyrinth constructed of pure mental energy by a race of beings known as the Mind Flayers.

Jan 24, 2010 5:04 PM

The Nature of Quantique

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

In his commentary to the Elder Key of Yebaoth, Tattersmythe details the nature of Quantique as well as the relationship between the
Lords of Xaicara and the thing called the Green Eye. The author-mystic proposes that the Eye is nothing less than a sidereal pylon
-- a visible bit of metaphysical architecture that extends infinitely into a possibly limitless quantity of pasts and futures. He compares it
to the tesseractal blue polyforms described by Jiadaccus, suggesting that these all may share a common origin in a rarefied hyper-
reality.

The precise nature of the Lords' enthrallment remains (fortunately, perhaps) unknown. Because it is fixed in space/time, and because
the wizards find themselves unable to abandon the Eye (perhaps addicted to its preternatural florescence?), they must remain in
Quantique and bask in the thing's glow regularly. It is said that Xaicara itself was assembled around the Eye, which hangs in air
approximately a mile above the windy grasslands of central Ireu. No one other than the Lords -- not even their most trusted acolyte
-- is permitted to see the Eye for reasons known only to the Lords themselves.

What is certain is that Quantique is in a constant state of expansion and has been so -- it is told -- since the arrival of the Green
Lords. The wizards have capitalized on the indeterminate reality of Quantique, which allows the territory to participate in the
existence of tangential dimensions. They have used this metaphysical quirk to annex unclaimed (or at least unprotected) localities and incorporate them into the skel of Quantique itself.
Thus the dominions of the Lords of Xaicara grow in number all the time -- but to what end? Is it ennui that compels the wizards to expand their holdings? Or is there a more rational
motive?
Jan 23, 2010 8:25 PM

Xaicara

http://www.google.com/reader/view/#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Feiglophian.blogspot.com%2Ffeeds%2Fposts%2Fdefault
from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto
Xaicara is the floating fastness of the Green Lords, the small coterie of wizards who -- as legend tells -- came to Quantique many
aeons ago. Some would have it that they fled across time and space from some ancient power -- that the discovery of Quantique
was a matter of pure chance. Others hypothesize that the wizards came in search of the Green Eye of Temir -- and having found
it, were bound up with its fate.

In any case, the preternatural beauty of the tesseractal Eye enthralls them, and they cannot bear to be away from it. So they live
out their immortality in Xaicara, never far from its numbing, cryptic glow.

Xaicara is inhabited by the Green Lords, their dozens of faithful acolytes, and several hundred phraint slaves. Additionally, the
place is the setting for a massive slave market that draws merchants from all corners of the Outer Dark.

The floating fastness' weather-beaten granite exterior houses a network of hallways, chambers, vaults, quadrangles, and shafts.
The upper stories are occupied by the Lords with the acolytes occupying the cells just below. At the very bottom of the structure
are the Breeding Pits, where the phraint cows are coaxed into producing drones of various types according to the whims of the
acolytes and the demands of the slave market.

(Image: The Guardians by Christophe Vacher)

Jan 23, 2010 8:25 PM

Atheus "The Magic Mountain"

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

Popout

This dronescape gets the Quantiquean stamp of approval.

Jan 23, 2010 8:25 PM

The Germ

from QUANTIQUE by G. Benedicto

"But tell me -- what is this place, old man?" whispered the slave.

"Quantique is not a proper place at all," replied Jiddu. "More of a confabulation of many lost and forgotten places, slowly annexed over the course of
ten-by-ten-thousand aeons by the Green Lords of Xaicara. They discovered Quantique in the long darks of Time, you see, and now it is theirs forever.
Their dominion, and also their prison."

This blog is a sort of notebook for a sandbox setting intended for OD&D.

The other day I was reading through the recent posts at the OD&D discussion boards, and I was inspired by something Geoffrey McKinney wrote. He described his first homebrew
campaign world. It was a place with very few humans aside from those portrayed by the players. In the center of the world was an evil wizard's tower, and lands were designated by the
various nasties that lived within them. There was a Land of Oozes, for instance. I was struck by not only the simplicity of it, but also the potentially terrifying possibilities it presented. Why
would a world like that exist? How does a single wizard -- or group of wizards -- come to possess such a frightening place? And what a dark place it must be. What a dark, in-between,
back-alley reality.

That's the germ for everything you will read and see here. That's the essence of Quantique.

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