Dungeon #143

[Prince of Happiness]

And can someone remind me what a Slithering Tracker was? I recognize the name and may even recognize the creature from 2E...was it an ooze creature? The one in the Monstrous Manual that looked silver in color and had mean-spirited eyes?

Yup. Rumored creation by evil wizards removing all the bones from their human victims and casting mean spells at them.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I'm really impressed with the Tides of Dread adventure and the accompanying Farshore Backdrop. It's a mini-campaign all its own, with expeditions to the Isle, a great balance of roleplaying (I'd love to play the phanatons as the lemur tribe from Madagascar), combat, and exploration with some backdrop political adventures, all ending in a climactic battle scene. Best of all, it's highly unscripted -- the players can take all kinds of different approaches -- yet most of the major courses of action are covered.

I think it is the best Savage Tide adventure yet!

(Oh, and don't worry too much about the rakastas ... some of them escaped the Isle, plus we'll apparently meet their evil cousins in Dungeon #145.)

 

[Alzrius]

You maniacs! You blew them up! Ah, damn you! Gods damn you all to the Abyss!

At least they finally get some acknowledgement, though.

They actually go into that in some detail. Apparently the original Olman settlers had some shamanistic animal cults form, and which later became shapeshifters. After the original savage tide, only the jaguar clan survived. After multiple generations, the werejaguars became the rakastas.

Unfortunately, the original savage tide had long since turned some of their number into skinwalkers (who'll be covered in more detail in "City of Broken Idols" in issue #145), who warred against their rakasta cousins, and succeeded in wiping them out a few years ago. The issue says that some may survive elsewhere on the Isle, and that it's "certain" that some escaped, but as a nation on the Isle, the rakasta are extinct.

FWIW, I am a Christian, and found nothing whatsoever offensive about that cover. But then, I had no trouble grasping the notion that it was a picture of the force of evil for my heroic PCs to oppose.

The letter in question is from a Christian gamer, who explains that he has no problem whatsoever with the game (since he knows that it is, after all, just a game), but his wife, also a Christian, has trouble with the game's "elements of magic and the supernatural," and that that cover - depicting a handsome, confident, muscular devil - won't make the debate any easier for him. He suggests that maybe it would have been better to put a cover that depicted righteous forces fighting Mephistopheles.

The response he gets is a polite rebuke. The staff mentions that posting an iconic villain on the cover is probably good for sales, that previous covers featured quite a few demon lords without any outcry, and perhaps most important of all, catering to reactionaries who don't even play the game accomplishes nothing, and offends the people who do.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

Unfortunately, the original savage tide had long since turned some of their number into skinwalkers (who'll be covered in more detail in "City of Broken Idols" in issue #145), who warred against their rakasta cousins, and succeeded in wiping them out a few years ago. The issue says that some may survive elsewhere on the Isle, and that it's "certain" that some escaped, but as a nation on the Isle, the rakasta are extinct.

Interesting- and cool to see that there will be some sort of future development. Wonder what the skinwalkers will look like? (For some reason, I'm seeing flashes of that B-movie "Cat People").

As far as the rakasta go, that's really no biggie- they weren't ever really depicted as a nation anyway- just a bunch of nomadic clans, so having their central power structure shattered doesn't hurt things. I'm glad they made some allowances to some being possibly still extant on the Isle.

 

[Nightfall]

Al,

Yeah that whole "Why did you put Mephistopheles!?! It offends us?!" would have been more effective...if it had been about say Dungeon 119 (the one with Graz'zt on the cover.) I mean that's near classic fiend if ever.

*still waiting for a good Orcus Dungeon cover*

 

[Razz]

Rakasta? Something new or an old edition creature? Likewise with Skinwalker. I recognize rakasta from somewhere, can't remember where though.

 

[Nightfall]

Razz,

I'm still trying to keep track of the other stuff like Zotzilaha and what the heck a Leonion half fiend does.

Unless rakastas are those lizard guys from the Abyss...

 

[el-remmen]

Rakastas are cat-guys from the Known World.

 

[Nightfall]

So in other words they are just cat people.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

So in other words they are just cat people.

Except that unlike what the great sage David Bowie observed about cat people, rakastas do not put out fire with gasoline.