From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Crossingham, Adam [Adam.Crossingham@Octavian1009.E-MAIL.COM] Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 1:14 PM To: 'dgrpg@delta-green.com' Subject: DG: Easy 8's Battleground WW2 Any wargamers out there on the list played any WW2 skirmish games using Easy Eight's Battleground WW2 wargames rules (http://www.battlegroundwwii.com/)? I was at 'Salute 2000' on Saturday, and the people at the Battlehonours stand (highly recommended 25mm WW2 figures, with commandos coming soon) were very enthusiastic about these rules, which are rare in the UK. However after checking the web site and the prices out I'm not so sure. I'd be particularly interested if the rules could mesh with the Call of Cthulhu rule system, but it looks like it's d6 based, so maybe not. -- Adam Crossingham War in English = Wanting more cows in Sanskrit Home e-mail: tigger@the-wolery.demon.co.uk Any opinions expressed in this email are those of the individual From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of William Timmins [wtimmins@hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 12:30 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: DG: Xanthophobia The Xanthophobia section has been added to my Endtimes site. http://wtimmins.tripod.com/DG/endtime/etxanth.html It's basically a short story... comments would be appreciated. I'm also working on a 12-piece cycle of KiY-related illustrations. ObDG: What was Piers Anthony REALLY writing about? -=Will ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of forvalaka@juno.com Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 1:25 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: I Need my Angel fix!!!! On Mon, 3 Apr 2000 07:54:40 -0700 (PDT) John Stanley writes: > When is the next chapter coming out ?, I am really > looking forward to what happens next!!! > > John > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. > http://im.yahoo.com > Is there an archive of old chapters? If this is what I think it is, I have missed them for over a year. Charles O. Baucum Jr. Mortuus non est quod in aeternum insiditur et aetate ignota mors ipsas finiretur From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of LizardRoi@aol.com Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 2:16 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Cartoon lust In a message dated 00-04-03 08:08:05 EDT, you write: << * Ivor the Engine (dragon powered steam engine in the Welsh valleys)>> That's what the reference was!! Sorry, a storyline from a couple of Xcalibur comics just fell into place. << * Crystaltips & Alistair (A girl obviously on drugs and a talking dog )>> Shouldn't that be spelled Aleister? I wonder if a connection could be made to Davey & Goliath, the Christian claymation series over here? << * Captain Pugwash (the antics of a middle class pirate captain and his crew, any connotations of English sexual practices perceived are completely false)>> Ha! What about Seaman Staynes? Huh? Is the cabin boy named Tommy Loy? That dirty little nipper. Mark McFadden Awhile back the "Moment of Zen" on the Daily Show was one of the other Teletubbies tickling Tinky Winky's ass with a feather for an extended period. From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Andy Robertson [andywrobertson@clara.co.uk] Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 3:02 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Cartoon lust ----- Original Message ----- From: Jonathan Turner > There was lots to Zenith, including a battle between alternative realities > which saw one superhuman have a close encounter with Yog-Sothoth... > And IIRC there was a letter from Robert Bloch in 2000AD, gently and jokingly reminding them to acknowledge the influence of The Master. From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Eckhard Huelshoff [EHuelshoff@t-online.de] Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 3:30 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: DG: The 6th Sense Good Evening. I guess this is kind of off-topic, but I really found this kind of amusing: In a huge German cinema a visitor was beaten up by other visitors. As we all know "The 6th Sense" has a great surprise that is uncovered at the end of the movie. Now, the mentioned beaten up guest did the following: Just in the moment when the film began, he cried out loud: "And for those who do not know it yet: The big surprise of the movie is......" And then he got kicked in the arse. A brave man. ECKHARD From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Andy Robertson [andywrobertson@clara.co.uk] Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 3:42 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: DG: Re: Xanthophobia ----- Original Message ----- From: William Timmins > The Xanthophobia section has been added to my Endtimes site. (OFFLIST) You ask for reaction, so . . I think this story has a very good background "feel", but it cramps its subject, which is the "kingship of the world" vibe from "The Repairer of Reputations". How well would it click with a reader who was not familiar with that story? It was always my favourite of the original KIY stories, but it is not the best known of them, I think: it has not had much influence on Mythos fiction / DG gaming stuff. I note you are forced to tell, not show, in several places. However, you would have to rewrite at three times the length to address this problem, and I'm not advising that. As it stands it's good, though not perfect, and the "kingship of the world" bit will probably wash over OK as random madness. In summary, if you are working at or close to this length, there is no way you could make this much better. Take a knife to the stalk and harvest it now. > > ObDG: What was Piers Anthony REALLY writing about? Blonde bimbos, I assume. Wish he'd died after writing "Omnivore". OBDg Great motile fungi. The Glove Cleaner From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Eckhard Huelshoff [EHuelshoff@t-online.de] Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 3:59 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: DG: The Stasi's radioactive operations Good Evening. Since I wasn't on the list for a couple of months [ and since I do not want to waste you precious time ] I wondered wether one of you already mentioned that the Stasi obviously used radioactive material to trace enemies of the state and their letters and belongings. For example: Agents put radioactive material on the envelopes that enemies of the state used to write letters to West Germany. In some of the East German post offices they seemed to have used Geiger-counters [word?] to identify dangerous letters so they could stop them from being sent to the west. At least two authors who critisized the Eastern regime died from cancer that are probably the result of these operations. ECKHARD From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Andy Robertson [andywrobertson@clara.co.uk] Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 4:12 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: DG: Fw: Cartoon and puppet horror > From: > Everything goes smoothly until Anthony sends his "sister" to > Cartoonland. > She appears on TV and the underside of Toontown appears and it's resid > say they've been waiting for her. Pandemonium. Almost every toddler in > the > theater *freaked*, I mean as in hysterics. Over a dozen families had to > the theater immediately with their terrified child(ren) in their arms. > More on this, the which it is wriggling around in my head. I don't visit the Dreamlands much now but I remember one place - a house, completely floorless inside, which after I had dreamed it into being and dreamed exploring its ruinous interior and dreamed myself back outside again and dreamed myself looking back at it, opened window eyes and a jagged pumpkin mouth in its walls and grinned out at me. What is it that is so horrible about the _hollow_ mask - the puppet head, the pumpkin lantern, the shell of ectoplasm, the rebellious and controlling ventriloquist's dummy, the ghost which consists of animated clothing with No Body inside? ("O Whistle And I'll Come To You, My Lad")? I think those kids had made a deeply true connection Toons = Ghosts The friendly jolly saturday morning cartoons are these things at play, but every kid KNOWS they are bogeymen and fears being in their power. Surfaces. The rotten grinning "human" mask that films over the Universe and breaks to pieces when to try to touch it. You don't agree? Well tell me HOW COME NO-ONE'S MENTIONED CASPAR? EH? I'll tell you why. Because we know there's no such thing as a _friendly_ghost. And what about - mix cartoon animatronics with the rebellious ventriloquist's dummy - some guy working on the next "Toy Story" and the cyber cartoon dolls come alive - "Play Nice" - it peers at you out of your workstation window when no-one but you is there . . . Hell, you could even cut that with a "cyberspace" thread . . . The Glove Cleaner From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Davide Mana [doctor.dee@libero.it] Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 4:12 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Re: Xanthophobia Greetings. Another huge off-topic flamefest is about to begin.... ;> >> ObDG: What was Piers Anthony REALLY writing about? > > >Blonde bimbos, I assume. Wish he'd died after writing "Omnivore". OBDg >Great motile fungi. C'mon... The Tarot sequence was a bit heavy-handed at certain times but not bad. I'd rather wish he'd not made so many money with the earlier Xanth stuff that he felt like writing more of the same. And more. But the more restrained bits are all right. Jack Chalker. Now that's one that should not be allowed to touch writing or other recording implements by law. And John Norman, of course. OBDG (?) - can you imagine a John Norman-oriented Dreamlands supplement? What do you think - should I pitch it at Chaosium? Would the Paganistas be interested? Sorry for the sillyness. Good night! Davide Mana Torino, Italy doctor.dee@libero.it The Ice Cave - http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/leiber/50/ice_cave.htm From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of box_nine@ix.netcom.com Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 4:41 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Fw: Cartoon and puppet horror Andy wrote: What is it that is so horrible about the _hollow_ mask - the puppet head, the pumpkin lantern, the shell of ectoplasm, the rebellious and controlling ventriloquist's dummy, the ghost which consists of animated clothing with No Body inside? ("O Whistle And I'll Come To You, My Lad")? If you haven't already, you need to read Thomas Ligotti's fiction very very badly. More mannequins, ventriloquists, masks, etc. than you can shake a puppet on a stick at. He ties it into loss of control, the side of the Universe we don't see (or don't want to), and similar jolly themes. In fact, there used to be a script he wrote for X-FILES, that likely will never be shot, lurking around the Net. Steven From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Andy Robertson [andywrobertson@clara.co.uk] Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 5:03 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Fw: Cartoon and puppet horror ----- Original Message ----- From: > If you haven't already, you need to read Thomas Ligotti's fiction very very badly. More > mannequins, ventriloquists, masks, etc. than you can shake a puppet on a stick at. Ligotti - the Knave of dreams. When I first read him I thought: Rejoice. The Night has opened a third Eye. > He ties it into loss of control, the side of the Universe we don't see (or don't want to), and > similar jolly themes. In fact, there used to be a script he wrote for X-FILES, that likely will > never be shot, lurking around the Net. I would very much appreciate ANY pointers or links to this. The Glove Cleaner From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of LizardRoi@aol.com Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 5:30 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Re: Xanthophobia In a message dated 00-04-03 16:45:05 EDT, you write: << > ObDG: What was Piers Anthony REALLY writing about? Blonde bimbos, I assume. Wish he'd died after writing "Omnivore". OBDg Great motile fungi. >> The "O" trilogy of Omnivore, Orn, and OX can provide lots of scenario seedlings. 1) The Mantas. Fungoid intelligent beings that look a bit like a manta ray. Introduced in Omnivore along with lots of stuff about how fungus amongus is a good thing and even essential to Life As We Know It. 2) Relieving overpopulation by colonizing alternate universes. Why wrestle with Einstein when a perfectly good uninhabited *Earth* is right here if you know how to get there. Just kill those dinosaurs off and start farming. 3) Agents. People who have suicided are considered to have relinquished all civil rights, so the gummint revives their bodies and builds them physically and mentally into Agents. They do a mission, then return and get their memories wiped so they don't spontaneously develop individual personalities. Sort of like the MiBs in the Matrix without the morphing or SFX. You can tell the production run of an Agent by their name. 4) The characters of Quilla, Veg and Cal. "Life" as a universal language. The Cooty-Catcher as a map of alternate worlds. These novels come from the "Macroscope" period, pre Xanth, pre Incarnations of Immortality, pre Bio of a Space Tyrant, pre most everything that seems to make people binary about Anthony. Mark McFadden Also, the Piers Anthony story in "Again, Dangerous Visions" (In The Barn) seems to belong to the "O" trilogy universe. From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of LizardRoi@aol.com Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 5:37 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: The Stasi's radioactive operations In a message dated 00-04-03 17:04:41 EDT, you write: << For example: Agents put radioactive material on the envelopes that enemies of the state used to write letters to West Germany. In some of the East German post offices they seemed to have used Geiger-counters [word?] to identify dangerous letters so they could stop them from being sent to the west. At least two authors who critisized the Eastern regime died from cancer that are probably the result of these operations. >> Eckhard, this has been done to death. Where have you been, some backwater nexus of Mythos rot like, oh , FRANCE? The radioactive material was put on the envelopes at the ATM so the malcontents would die as part of a cancer cluster and arouse no suspicion, and Chernobyl would be blamed. Mark McFadden Shhhhhhhh. Don't tell him. From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of LizardRoi@aol.com Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 5:40 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Fw: Cartoon and puppet horror In a message dated 00-04-03 17:15:10 EDT, you write: << You don't agree? Well tell me HOW COME NO-ONE'S MENTIONED CASPAR? EH? I'll tell you why. Because we know there's no such thing as a _friendly_ghost. >> That's why we refer to call the cartoons "Casper, the Dead Baby." Mark McFadden Not my joke, but I'm trying to get it back out there. From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of LizardRoi@aol.com Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 5:50 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: DG: Franchise of Gor In a message dated 00-04-03 17:17:24 EDT, you write: << OBDG (?) - can you imagine a John Norman-oriented Dreamlands supplement? What do you think - should I pitch it at Chaosium? Would the Paganistas be interested? >> They might go #1 with a bullet with the Anne Rice crowd. Lots of female submission, bondage (knots knots knots), topping from below, skimpy clothing...sort of like Eden Isle run by a big praying mantis. Mark McFadden From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of DocHopt@aol.com Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 5:59 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Re: Neotissue in 'Wired'? In a message dated 4/2/00 9:34:57 AM Pacific Daylight Time, andywrobertson@clara.co.uk writes: << The stuff is sprayed on, so if neo-tissue is a "single lump" that does not retain its organisation when it is split up to microscopic sizes this should raise few alarms. However, this isn't really a field of expertise for me. >> A little side note, I keep having disturbing thoughts about neotissue possibly beig able to coalesce from little bit of itself back into one whole blob, a la the "Terminator 2" baddie. Any comments from our man with the writers' cramp, Mr. Tynes? Hopt Is new at this... From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Michael Layne [theherald@hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 6:31 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Re: Xanthophobia On 03 April 2000, only two days after April Fools' Day, Davide Mana says, regarding the rapidly-mutating Xanth thread: >Jack Chalker. >Now that's one that should not be allowed to touch writing or other >recording implements by law. Oh, he isn't too bad, provided you don't mind the hero(ine) of the story almost invariably ending up as a member of a different gender (sometimes, a different species) than he, she, or it, started the tale as... The experiments in Chalker's novel "The Identity Matrix" sound almost like something a branch of MJ-12 would fool around with (with just enough decoded data from The Cookbook to be dangerous)! And I don't even want to _think_ about the Mi-Go playing around on the Well World!! >And John Norman, of course. AAACK! (The Herald swiftly crosses himself and holds up a Cross, Undead Repulsion (Silver), Senior Officers' Issue, M2A1, as he backs away from the keyboard!):) > >OBDG (?) - can you imagine a John Norman-oriented Dreamlands supplement? Only if John Norman, while dreaming, encounters Jack Chalker, and thereby gets his mind transferred into the body of one of those helpless slave girls he is invariably writing about! (Norman should think of it as "literary research"...):) >What do you think - should I pitch it at Chaosium? >Would the Paganistas be interested? In the words of Astronaut Jose Himinez (when asked by the interviewer "Is that your _Crash Helmet_"): "Ohhh... I _hope_ not!":) In order to pay off the royalties to John Norman, the supplement would probably need to cost at least twice as much as "Beyond the Mountains of Madness"! The content of the supplement might lead to The Purple Kat and some of the other female (and likely a few of the male) members of the DG List hijacking a MJ-12 orbital-weapons control center (much as the nuclear missile site was taken over in Walter Wager's novel "Viper 3" -- filmed as "Twilight's Last Gleaming", IIRC) and threatening to land a a few THOR kinetic-kill munitions at 15,000 mph on Chaosium's warehouse (specifically, on the section of the building containing the Norman supplement -- Precision Guided Munitions are fun!) should the Norman supplement be released!:) > >Sorry for the sillyness. >Good night! The same here... Maybe the above got just a little too silly, even for me...:) Guess I need more sleep... (Well, that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!) Michael Layne DGGF#688 theherald@hotmail.com ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Josh Shaw [joshaw@slip.net] Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 6:47 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Franchise of Gor I want to play the :LARP!!!!!!! LizardRoi@aol.com wrote: > In a message dated 00-04-03 17:17:24 EDT, you write: > > << OBDG (?) - can you imagine a John Norman-oriented Dreamlands supplement? > What do you think - should I pitch it at Chaosium? Would the Paganistas be > interested? >> > > They might go #1 with a bullet with the Anne Rice crowd. Lots of female > submission, bondage (knots knots knots), topping from below, skimpy > clothing...sort of like Eden Isle run by a big praying mantis. > > Mark McFadden -- Most people don't *want* to be free, they just want their masters to look like them. Benjamin Shamfroff From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Michael Layne [theherald@hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 7:46 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Re: Really Big Ships On Sunday, 2 April, 2000 AD, "The Glove Cleaner", "Andy Robertson" said: >I love Battleships. Beautiful, beautiful, vast, machines. > >Have you noticed the things we make only ever get really beautiful after >two >or three generations of refinement as a killing machine? > >Does anyone on the list have links or info appertaining to the _really_ big >ships that Nazis were once planning to build? 80,000 tonners that would >have made the Bismark look like a heavy cruiser. 8 x 20" guns, IIRC. Or >is it just a rumor? These would have been the "H-Class", of the Kriegsmarine's "Z-Plan" -- enlarged "Bismarcks", and the long-range plans called for even larger BBs. While they would have been awesome, they were never launched. (see: http://www.skypoint.com/members/jbp/furashita/fuhrer_f.htm for information on these ships) At the same time, on the opposite side of the world, the IJN was working on designs for bigger BBs than "Yamato"! (See http://www.skypoint.com/members/jbp/furashita/satsum_f.htm for information on IJN "Satsuma" (a heavier version of the "Yamato", with 20-inch guns; while these two hulls were apparently laid down, only one was completed -- as the carrier "Shinano", which was promptly sunk by a US sub) and see http://www.skypoint.com/members/jbp/furashita/yokuza_f.htm for information on IJN "Yokuza", which would have been the biggest Japanese battleship ever!) To counter the projected Axis monsters, the USN designed (but never completed) the "Montana" class BBs (http://www.skypoint.com/members/jbp/furashita/montana_f.htm) which would have resembled stretched "Iowa" class battleships, with four triple turrets. The site at http://www.combinedfleet.com/kaigun.htm includes links to analyses of which (of the various classes actually completed) was the "best" battleship, and to a "Guns and Armor Page". Hope this helps a little. Michael Layne DGGF#688 theherald@hotmail.com "What happens if you hit Cthulhu with a broadside from a battleship?" "You get his attention." ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of EdDrWho@aol.com Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 9:45 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: TRADECRAFT: ultralights and such In a message dated 4/3/00 6:32:02 AM Central Daylight Time, Adam.Crossingham@Octavian1009.E-MAIL.COM writes: > Oh dear. I think you've said it all..... > What exactly is the problem? Bad experiences with women or good experiences > with firearms? You took your USMC drill instructor's advice seriously?? :) > Neither actually. Just read a funny write-up of the P90 in the Feng Shui players guide, and I know prettier (and more accessible) women who're closer to me. From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of David Farnell [daf@iwa.att.ne.jp] Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 11:41 PM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Re: Xanthophobia From: > The "O" trilogy of Omnivore, Orn, and OX can provide lots of scenario > seedlings. Was he the writer of the highly trippy _Cthon_ novel (perhaps a series--my memories of that novel make me think I must have read it while suffering from a high fever, either that or it was trippier than I thought)? Dave From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of David Farnell [daf@iwa.att.ne.jp] Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 11:39 PM To: Delta Green List Subject: Re: DG: I Need my Angel fix!!!! From: Charles O. Baucum Jr. > Is there an archive of old chapters? If this is what I think it is, I > have missed them for over a year. Then it probably isn't what you think it is, as I've only been writing it for a bit over a month (unless you count "Tiger," the prequel/prologue, and that's on the DG site under Case Histories). But Chapter 6 will be done soon (sorry for the delay--things get busy, and it's MAJOR allergy season, so I'm sick as a dog...and thanks for the demand, John Stanley--I'll drag myself off my ass and get to work now). If you're missing any earlier chapters (or sections of chapters, as I've broken some up into shorter pieces), contact me off-list and tell me what you need; I'll email them to you off-list. Be seeing you, Dave From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Davide Mana [doctor.dee@libero.it] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 1:15 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Re: Neotissue in 'Wired'? Greetings. ><< The stuff is sprayed on, >> Finally a creative way to blind attackers.... Take care. Davide Mana From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Davide Mana [doctor.dee@libero.it] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 1:32 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Re: Xanthophobia Greetings. Plague by allergy, SuperDave still has a god memory... >Was he the writer of the highly trippy _Cthon_ novel (perhaps a series--my >memories of that novel make me think I must have read it while suffering >from a high fever, either that or it was trippier than I thought)? Yes indeed - Cthon, Cosm and what else making up the series. Incidentally, the Italian ed. of 'Cthon' (which I do not have - curses!) is one of the most priced books on the sf collector's market. Piers Anthony did have some good ideas. The "Battle Circle" (IIRC) trilogy should offer some ideas for a peri-End Times scenario or four - fighting is being artificially selected as a basic human trait by granting consumer goods and coupling opportunities to winners in one-on-one duels. If this is not an MJ-sponsored project.... And I really love the one about technological level being two-way dependant on demographics - drop the population density and you'll not be able to sustain a hi tech society any more. As a result, older, more traditional forms get adopted to replace the missing 'tech society' patterns. Could be a memes thing. It's just a pity about the puns.... Davide Mana Torino, Italy doctor.dee@libero.it The Ice Cave - http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/leiber/50/ice_cave.htm From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of David Farnell [daf@iwa.att.ne.jp] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 1:48 AM To: Delta Green List Subject: DG: Fiction: ANGEL 6 ANGEL (David Farnell, 2000) Six: Long is the way, and hard "So, Gracie, tell me why they sent you here." She felt tired all the time. She'd gained twelve pounds and moved more slowly on the range. She'd stopped her physical training. Her evening companions were cheap books and a bottle of Wild Turkey. The books kept her mind off things, and the whisky helped her sleep. "I don't know. Mother-henning me, I guess." She felt fat, feeble, and full of unwanted memories. "So you've got no problems?" Since joining the conspiracy, she'd been on four "psychotic operas." Nothing like the first one, and very different to what had happened to her twenty-five years before. Her horizons had broadened. Drastically. "Little things, of course. I mean, who doesn't? You deal with it--you suck it up and tough it out. I'll be fine." The Ozarks--that had been a bad one. Fourteen months ago they had gone in, she and Jerry, just to scout around, check up on some hinky reports. They'd both gotten out alive, but at least two dozen other people had died. "Take a step back--look at yourself. Do you really think you'll be fine?" Civilians had died--most of them kids. Not crazies, not quislings. Bystanders who'd just been following the ways of their ancestors. "...maybe..." She and Jerry had thought they were dealing with a small cult. They'd thought they could just disrupt the ritual and stop the summoning. A little dynamite--boom. Problem solved. But it hadn't been a summoning. Those people hadn't been worshipping the things in that wood. "Maybe what? Come on, Gracie." They'd been keeping the things asleep. "Who are you anyway? Some kind of goddam shrink?" She'd played with some of those kids. She remembered one little boy, his smile like an angel's.... Doc chuckled. "Something like that. Only I know enough that when you tell me you've seen aliens, or monsters, or whatever, I believe you." God, what they did to him.... "Gracie?" *** She woke up on a couch, a light blanket covering her. She was wearing all of her clothes, even her shoes. From the light, she thought it was only a short time after she'd sat down. The man, the one Jerry called Doc, was coming back into the room, carrying two mugs of coffee and a wet towel. One of his dogs followed him; she noticed another at the foot of the couch, watching her. Both dogs had intelligent, alert faces. Wolf-like, but smaller, with curly tails and fox-colored fur. Blacked out again. There were things--a boy's face, the smell of burning meat--that triggered a shutdown these days. This was the fourth time. Oh, God.... "Good. Welcome back." Doc put the coffee on the end table and handed her the towel. It was warm. She wiped her face with it, surprised to find the salt trails of dried tears. "What happened?" She pushed her long hair back automatically, only it wasn't long anymore. Habit. She'd cut it short after the divorce six months ago. "We were talking, but then you went away for a few minutes." He sat down in his chair. He had long, gray hair, loose around his shoulders, and a scruffy beard. His clothes were comfortable, chinos and a blue work shirt, bare feet. He was missing two toes on his left foot. In fact, now that she looked at them, his feet were all gnarled and callused, and several toes looked like they'd been broken and healed a bit off-true. "Gracie? You're fading again. Have some coffee." She pushed away the blanket and sat up. Gracie--another pseudonym, because Delta Green couldn't afford to let even Doc know its agents' real names. And he didn't want to know. She took the mug but just held it, looking into its black surface, feeling the heat in her hands. She mumbled, "I don't want to be here." "You're a big, tough monster hunter. Of course you don't want to be here, talking to a head shrinker. You want to be out there, making the world a safer place, right?" "What do you know about it?" Annoyed, tired. He smiled. "I know about it. I was you, once, sucking it up, toughing it out. Oh, yeah, I had clanging balls of steel. One day I woke up in a straight jacket." She looked at him, thinking, then sipped at her coffee. "Not bad," glancing down at the coffee. "So, what broke you?" He chuckled. "Interesting word. Calculated to piss me off, from the sound of it. Still, it's accurate." He settled deeper into the chair. "You know, we're supposed to be talking about you. But okay, I'll play along for now. Let's show each other our scars." He drank some coffee, thinking. "Let's see. I was in the CIA, overseas. I saw some of what your partner Ned"--that was the name Jerry used with Doc--"calls the Outside. No need to go into details. I got recruited by DG and really dug it. I mean, it was scary, but the whole reason I drifted into the Company was that I loved secrets. I loved knowing them and I loved keeping them, and here were the biggest secrets of all." "But you held it together." "For a few years. Some secrets are poisonous. They can take over your mind, eating away at your sleep, your peace. I started doing little rituals, things like buttoning every odd button on my shirt, and then every even button, eating food in certain patterns according to what day it was. I mean everyone does something like that, especially people in dangerous professions--lucky socks, rub the rabbit's foot, whatever. But I was getting weird. I had notebooks filled with charts that told me how to eat my corn-on-the-cob on even-numbered Tuesdays. I was saving my piss in jars, and I can't really remember why." "But, what did it? What sent you over?" "It was gradual, no one thing. I read some bad books, killed things, killed people, almost got killed. Mainly it was just thinking about it, the abyss. The rituals helped me avoid thinking about it, and they gave me some vague feeling of control. Like, maybe I thought if I saved my urine, that would put off the end of the world. Hey, I was crazy. Anyway, then I got some notion about my toes--too many of them." He held up his mangled foot and wiggled his remaining toes. "Used the gardening shears to take off the even-numbered ones. Luckily I only got to one foot before I started thinking this was a bit bizarre. Sometimes pain clears the mind. I called the hospital myself and passed out." Maria almost laughed. "Ouch." He shrugged. "I don't wear shoes much, anymore. It's a great conversation starter. So I spent almost eight years inside, and let me tell you, there's folks in there who know a lot more about what's really going on than you'd think. After I got out, I went to school and got certified to practice." He leaned forward. "So you're in good, state-approved hands. I'm talking too much. Your turn." *** She talked, slowly at first, then faster. Unburdening felt good, she knew, but it didn't really help much overall. She could unburden herself on Jerry anytime, and he did the same to her. It didn't stop the need to shut down her brain. On her second visit, she said as much to Doc. "Oh, yeah, sure. Just talking about it won't solve anything, but you gotta start somewhere. And it does help relieve the stress of living the secret life. I mean, you can't tell all this to your mom. So, tell me, what do you do to shut it out?" "What do you mean?" "The Outside. Everybody's got a wall to block it out, but for people like us, we've got a few bricks knocked out of ours. Holes that the black shines through. You can hear it sometimes, can't you?" She hesitated. "Yes." "When do you hear it?" "When, um, when I'm lying in bed. In the early summer, sometimes I hear a sort of, a kind of vibration. A hum, I guess, but sometimes I think it's a moan, or a song. I can't--there's no word that describes it, really." She pressed her hand to her breastbone. "When did it start?" "Um...when I was thirteen." "After your friend died?" Very quietly, she said, "Yes." "Gracie, what happened?" She had never told anyone, even Jerry. She closed her eyes. It was all there, encysted, pearlized, just above her heart: the beauty, the horror, the fantastic strangeness of it all. It was hers and hers alone. She could never tell which she wanted more: to escape it forever, or to dive into the heart of it once again. "I'm sorry. I can't...I just can't." Doc shrugged. "Okay. Maybe later. Back to the earlier question: What do you do to block it? Obviously not hitting the gym." She glared at him, her color rising. He met her anger impassively. "Touched a nerve? So what?" he said. "I mean, I've come across all sorts of ways. Nothing embarrasses me. Your pal Ned tells me you know his method. I'm pretty sure yours is more prosaic. More dangerous, too, though, isn't it?" "Don't preach to me." "Come on, Gracie! I'm the guy who cut his toes off. Overdoing the Jack Daniels isn't going to shock anyone." She stared at the ceiling in disgust. "Is it that obvious?" "Just by looking at you? Mmm, not quite yet. Getting there. But your mystery man, the guy who never shows his face, he sent me copies of your file at the Bureau. They're already noticing, these last few weeks. You're a step away from being recommended for a psych eval." "Shit. No wonder I got sent here." They were quiet for a while. They drank coffee. A dog jumped up in the sofa and lay its head in Maria's lap; she petted it, scratched its ears. Doc watched her. As if she were speaking to the dog, she said quite clearly, "I want to break out of it. Part of me sees the spiral I'm in. It's going down. But I just don't see any way out. After all, we're all in the same downward spiral, the whole human race, right? Just, you and me and, uh, Ned, we know it. We can see it, so we just try to forget about it. Don't worry--be happy. But...I can't. So I guess I just want to...anaesthetize myself. I have bad dreams." Doc grunted. "You sound pretty well resigned to your fate." "What fucking choice do we have?" "Oh, there's false bravado, defiance, denial, ignoring the problem. The usual human reactions." "Great. Well, I prefer to be a whisky-swilling realist." "How about hope?" She thought of a long-ago birthday card. "When you know as much as we do, false hope is worse than no hope at all." "I don't mean the longing for hope. I mean the real thing, something you can latch onto--a thing that gives you hope. How about that?" She shook her head. "I don't know. There's nothing I can think of. Even if it was all out in the open, even if we had nukes at our disposal, we're just little ants--" "Yeah, yeah, we're just fleas on a dead dog in a ditch, I know all that. You're still locked in the war paradigm. 'We can't blow up the Outsiders, so let's just go out fighting.' Sure, the fighting's necessary, sometimes, but that's not the way we're going to come through this. You're letting yourself be overawed by the differences in scale, and it's blinding you to other possibilities." "Like what? What can we possibly do?" He thought, combing his beard with his fingers, looking inward. "I'm not sure, yet. My...theories sound a little half-baked, you might say. But, I want to try something with you. You say you have bad dreams. Well, I can do something about that, maybe even put you on a new path, take you off boozehound road. Take away any need for it, anyway." "What's that?" "It starts with a little magic." *** He explained the ritual in terms more psychological than magical, but admitted that the line was very fuzzy, perhaps even completely false. "With what we've been learning, the hoary old 'Any sufficiently advanced technology' line can be rephrased to include 'Any sufficiently advanced psychology.' Think of this as an advanced kind of hypnosis, except, of course, that it's actually quite old." He messed with the light levels, started a tape of atonal pipings, and lit some odd-smelling incense that made her sneeze. She felt silly and said so. He said, "This isn't new age juvenilia. This is the real deal. Stop being embarrassed, and get into it. It won't work if you're playing the more-scientific-than-thou disinterested observer. You've got to get over your fear of the subjective." "I've seen what playing with 'magic' does to people," she said, doubtfully. "There's magic we learned from the Outside, and magic we developed ourselves. Most of it is like handling plutonium, sure, but this is something that simply helps get your mind into an altered state. Well, no, it's more than that, but I'm not sure exactly what. Anyway, I think you'll find a lot of questions answered on the other side." "Where are we going?" She felt chills, and an increase in the pressure in her chest. The environment was beginning to have an effect on her. The incense was triggering reactions deep in her lizard-brain, the music playing in her bloodstream. "Maybe it's Oz, maybe Narnia. Maybe it's a deep-rooted virtual reality that connects to the collective unconscious, or the Aboriginal Dreamtime. The guy I learned about it from called it the Dreamlands. Now, stop asking questions and repeat after me...." *** Of the days she spent in the basalt-towered city of Dylath-Leen, she could not remember clearly, but when she returned to the waking world she felt a sense of the peace she had lost long before. Under Doc's tutelage (in Dylath-Leen he was known by another name, as was she), she had quickly learned, or rather remembered, to control minor aspects of her surroundings, and had proven to have a greater ability than many who had been travelling the Dreamlands for decades. She had met friends there, and enemies, who remembered her from decades past, and she had memories there that she could not find when awake. She had some kind of fame as one who had once been a powerful Shaper, but after a journey to a cursed land, had returned shorn of her powers. In the next few months, with Doc's help at first and later on her own as she quickly surpassed him, she entered the 'lands again and again, soon learning to dispense with the props and most of the ritual. And when nightmares of dying children threatened to devour her, she had at her disposal techniques to take command and change the nightmare to pleasure, and no longer feared the night, nor needed any soma to help her sleep. And although there were terrors stronger than herself, she knew now that there were ways to fight them, and learn about them, and subtler ways than the gun to defeat them. For the first time in twenty-five years, she danced. From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of forvalaka@juno.com Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 2:48 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Cc: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Franchise of Gor > They might go #1 with a bullet with the Anne Rice crowd. Lots of > female > submission, bondage (knots knots knots), topping from below, skimpy > clothing...sort of like Eden Isle run by a big praying mantis. > > Mark McFadden > Maybe they would go for it, but I think I would rather be gut-shot. Charles O. Baucum Jr. Mortuus non est quod in aeternum insiditur et aetate ignota mors ipsas finiretur From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Robert Thomas [ThomasR@Cardiff.ac.uk] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 5:06 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Neotissue in 'Wired'? Hello All, Graeme wrote: > Graeme > > graemep@immag.mcg.edu > > Something is coming. Something wonderful.... OK I'll bite what's coming? Rob. > > From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of LizardRoi@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 4:13 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: DG: Anthony reconsidered. Dave mentioned the ripping good yarns that formed the Battle Circle. Lots of fights, a compelling soap opera of interpersonal relationships that move "history" like the spats of Henry, Eleanor and Phillip. All the basic hand-to-hand weapons are supplied by automated hostels, and part of the fun of the first volume was coming up with something that could beat them all in a sort of martial rock-scissors-paper. Sos the Rope, Sol of All Weapons,Var the Stick, Neq the Sword\Glockenspiel, Mok the Morningstar. Man, I haven't thought about them in years. Don't look for deeper meaning, although it's there. It's a page turner, an example of the siren call of "What happens next?" And nary a pun apparent. ObDG: any gladitorial scenario could do worse than looking here for ideas. And Davide was right about Endtimes adaption. Also, there is a section in Var the Stick involving an artificial Minotaur (a city found this whole sacrificing to the gods business so useful that they decided to get proactive and make their own) and another concerning an Amazon society with some speculations about humans in a hive society that, uh, had some ideas about possible Skoptsi reproduction tactics. Damn, I'm starting to remember why I kept turning the pages. And, since I'm feeling so generous towards Mr. Anthony, let me go on for awhile about Macroscope, which has become one of my favorite books. He wasn't very savvy back then and would write the book first, *then* sell it. No insult possible, I'm paraphrasing his own observation. The macroscope of the title is an instrument that can tune in to hitherto unknown colours and spectra comprising the very fabric of space and time, allowing the operator to focus and observe everything and anything happening *now*, which means of course that when viewing distant worlds what is happening *now* is the image of what happened when the {wave} began it's omnidirectional journey. Anyone who was feeling a little left out in the Gate thread could find this a very entertaining primer to the issues involved. The machine was built from schematics transmitted by a constant broadcast signal which is the first thing that was discovered (shades of Contact). BUT, there is a restriction on it's range and bandwidth in the form of encryption, a sort of black ice that renders anyone above a certain intelligence a drooling vegetable. After the macroscope is built and "the authorities" play with it for awhile, well, let's just say that a crystal clear 3D VRML type view of what was going on on another world thousands of years ago isn't quite as compelling as what's going on in your neighbors house - or command center. Possession of the single scope would be the trump in the game of global domination. But the scientists know that the real treasure lies beyond the black ice, they believe it's another broadcast containing more schematics, and the encryption is an intelligence test that punishes too much, and is impenetrable to too little and they haven't found what is just right. Ivo Archer is a man of normal intelligence and mixed heritage with a complicated past. Brad, a former classmate has him brought aboard the space station that services the macroscope (which can only work in free fall IIRC) to take the test. You see, although Ivo is not intelligent enough to get through, he is also immune to the mindkilling meme. That's what the black ice is, a self replicating concept that, if understood, will take over the mind and leave nothing but spittle. Ivo can't figure out the riddle-concept so he is safe, and he might be able to unlock the puzzle nonetheless because he has access to a very special resource: Schon. Probably the most powerful mind mankind has produced, and who Ivo Archer used to be. S P O I L E R S Alright kids, are the grownups gone? Good. Both Schon and Brad are the products of an experiment in eugenics. A combination of every racial type, designed for health and intelligence, they were raised in a commune with no adult guidance or restrictions on the directions their intelligence takes them. Due to a mysterious crime committed by Schon, the group has sentenced him to receding into the unconscious and becoming Ivo as penance. Ivo gives himself a past by adopting the life story and "memories" of a 19th Century poet, much like the replicants of Bladerunner collect old photographs. The plan is to get Schon to help in the project by enabling access to his complete array of savant talents such as eidetic memory, musical/mathematical/games prodigal talents, calculating, polyglot, etc etc like a list of Stephen Alzis' spells. This is just the initial situation, the story hasn't really started yet. As you can see, without being overtly Mythos, it deals with subjects that often are. Also includes: Astrology, cosmology, making a starship out of a gas giant, one way to survive high gees and one way not to. One of the coolest vast ancient automated impersonal museum/intelligence tests I've ever encountered with an intriguing universal language concept. Good stuff. Mark McFadden Next up, saying nice things about Stephen King. From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Joseph Camp [alphonse@delta-green.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 5:07 AM To: dgrpg Subject: DG: Pyramid Chat w/Tynes 04/04/00 >7PM CDT: John Tynes >John Tynes, the editor-in-chief of Pagan Publishing (DELTA GREEN, THE >UNSPEAKABLE OATH), line editor for Atlas Games (UNKNOWN ARMIES), and >author of PUPPETLAND and DELTA GREEN: THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, will talk >about projects current and future including DELTA GREEN: PROJECT RAINBOW, >STATOSPHERE for UNKNOWN ARMIES, and the return of THE UNSPEAKABLE OATH. >He'll take questions on anything ranging from the D20 license to 17th >century cheese manufacture, though answers for the latter are likely to be >sketchy at best... You must be a Pyramid subscriber to attend (http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/). be seeing you, Alphonse From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Jonathan Turner [j.turner@irishnews.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 5:28 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Pyramid Chat w/Tynes 04/04/00 PROJECT RAINBOW? Someone please elaborate... pleassseeee... JT From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Eckhard Huelshoff [EHuelshoff@t-online.de] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 5:31 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Japan's PM David Farnell schrieb: > Well, here we were talking about Japan and Prime Minister Obuchi suffers a > stroke. [snip] > Not sure what to > make of those last two, but if I know this list, they'll be properly mixed > in with any conspiracy theories that come up. Also, there's word that > Obuchi-san fell ill soon after discussions with Ozawa-san, a former PM and > head of the Liberal Party, who is threatening to pull out of the ruling > coalition with the LDP (Obuchi's party). But why the hell does the whole cabinet want to quit because of Mr. Obuchi's illness? Speaking of Japan and Japanese: I am afraid that Paris is going to be conquered by the Japanese in the near future. They are everywhere you look in the French capital. And they alway appear in groups. And -I found this very confusing- it is just girls in school uniforms. In the Louvre: Groups of giggling Japanese school girls. On the Eiffel Tower: Groups of giggling Japanese school girls. In Notre Dame or the Centre Pompidou: The same. Frightening, really frightening. ECKHARD From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Jonathan Turner [j.turner@irishnews.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 6:01 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: RE: DG: Cartoon lust At 11:36 AM 4/4/00 -0000, you wrote: > ><<< Is the cabin boy named Tommy Loy? That dirty little nipper. >>> >I believe the little tyke's name was Roger the Cabin Boy... > All of the Pugwash rumours and sexual innuendo is complete garbage, I'm afraid. The cabin boy was actually called Tom. The Guardian were caught out a few years ago when they repeated the legend and had to print an apology. Here's a link: http://www.urbanlegends.com/tv/cpt.pugwash/cpt_pugwash_dirty_names.html From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Crossingham, Adam [Adam.Crossingham@Octavian1009.E-MAIL.COM] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 6:37 AM To: 'dgrpg@delta-green.com' Subject: RE: DG: Cartoon lust The Lizard Roi asks: <<< Shouldn't that be spelled Aleister? >>> Nah, only Crowley spells his name that way... <<< I wonder if a connection could be made to Davey & Goliath, the Christian > claymation series over here? >>> Crystaltips used a bizarre animation technique similar to South Park's, but the art direction was a lot more... 'groovy'. <<< Is the cabin boy named Tommy Loy? That dirty little nipper. >>> I believe the little tyke's name was Roger the Cabin Boy... -- Adam Crossingham War in English = Wanting more cows in Sanskrit Home e-mail: tigger@the-wolery.demon.co.uk Any opinions expressed in this email are those of the individual From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Crossingham, Adam [Adam.Crossingham@Octavian1009.E-MAIL.COM] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 7:08 AM To: 'dgrpg@delta-green.com' Subject: RE: DG: Cartoon lust <<< All of the Pugwash rumours and sexual innuendo is complete garbage, I'm afraid. >>> Ohhh Jonathan, you've ruined a perfectly good urban legend... Conspiratorial voice: [You know it, I know it, but the rest of them? They'll never know the difference and don't care anyway] From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Jonathan Turner [j.turner@irishnews.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 6:23 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: RE: DG: Cartoon lust At 12:07 PM 4/4/00 -0000, you wrote: ><<< All of the Pugwash rumours and sexual innuendo is complete garbage, I'm >afraid. >>> > >Ohhh Jonathan, you've ruined a perfectly good urban legend... > >Conspiratorial voice: [You know it, I know it, but the rest of them? They'll >never know the difference and don't care anyway] > > Equally low, sinister whisper: [I'm just muddying the waters. It is true after all!] From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Jonathan Turner [j.turner@irishnews.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 6:33 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: DG: Eaters of the Dead Actually, from that same Urban Legends site, here's something of interest about cannabalism... http://www.urbanlegends.com/death/cannibalism.html From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Joseph Camp [alphonse@delta-green.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 6:30 AM To: dgrpg Subject: Re: DG: Pyramid Chat w/Tynes 04/04/00 >PROJECT RAINBOW? Someone please elaborate... pleassseeee... The third DG Eyes Only chapbook. Pagan tells me it is now at press and should be available for ordering by the end of the month, assuming all goes well at the printer. I believe you can find a sneak preview at Pagan's web site: http://www.tccorp.com/ be seeing you, Alphonse From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Jonathan Turner [j.turner@irishnews.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 6:48 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Pyramid Chat w/Tynes 04/04/00 At 07:29 AM 4/4/00 -0400, you wrote: >>PROJECT RAINBOW? Someone please elaborate... pleassseeee... > >The third DG Eyes Only chapbook. Pagan tells me it is now at press and >should be available for ordering by the end of the month, assuming all >goes well at the printer. I believe you can find a sneak preview at >Pagan's web site: > >http://www.tccorp.com/ > >be seeing you, >Alphonse > > I haven't looked here yet, but a bell rings distantly in the vaulted chamber of my skull - the Philadelphia Experiment? From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Steven Kaye [box_nine@ix.netcom.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 7:28 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Children of Shugoran At 1:39 PM +0300 4/1/00, Tolga Yanasik wrote: >While I was skimming Countdown, I realized that there wasn't any >description of Children of Shugoran. T.E.D. Klein, "Black Man with a Horn." In his collection DARK GODS, or more recently in CTHULHU 2000 (though I'd recommend DARK GODS over the latter). There are only hints as to what the thing looks like - black skin, humanoid in general shape, a trunk-like appendage, wings The creatures are also in THE CREATURE COMPANION from Chaosium. Steven ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Steven Kaye box_nine@ix.netcom.com Reason - rationality - is a concentration camp, where the sets of concepts for surviving in a chaotic universe form vast, though finite, rows of huts, separated into blocks by electric fences, which the searchlights of Attention rove over, picking out now one group of huts, now another. Thoughts, like prisoners - imprisoned for their own security and safety - scurry and march and labour in a flat two-dimensional zone, forbidden to leap fences, gunned down by laser beams of madness and unreason if they try to. Ian Watson, THE EMBEDDING From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Noyes [ft203004@fsinet.or.jp] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 9:42 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: RE: DG: Japan's PM >But why the hell does the whole cabinet want to quit because of Mr. Obuchi's >illness? Because they derive their power through him. A new PM creates a new cabinet. >just girls in school uniforms. In the Louvre: Groups of giggling Japanese school >girls. On the Eiffel Tower: Groups of giggling Japanese school girls. In Notre >Dame or the Centre Pompidou: The same. Well, it's good to hear that the Shibuya cloning plants are keeping up the good work. >Frightening, really frightening. Buddy, you aught to live here... Jay From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of William Timmins [wtimmins@hotmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 10:02 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Re: Xanthophobia >From: "Andy Robertson" >You ask for reaction, so . . Thanks for the feedback... yeah, you make some good points. :) I may rewrite it, later, a bit longer so I can actually manage some subtlety. We'll see... I'm hoping the story doesn't need knowledge of Repairer of Reputations and other elements, so much as transform based on what you know. I'm also relying on the 'Trust no one... particularly the author' Any and all parts of the story may be false. Ia! Ia! -=Will ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Mintarr@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 10:09 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Anthony reconsidered. On the subject of Anthony, while not very mythos-esque (although there could be bits, its been years since I've even seen a copy), But What Of Earth was pretty damn good, and pun free (and admit it people, you like the puns every now and again). Basically, Earth is a shithole. THe story then revolves around the lives of a few people during the time immediately preceding, during, and after, the mass exaunt of the majority of the human race to other planets. Some stuff in there about FTL if I'm not mistaken. Thing is, its nigh unto impossible to find a copy. i found one copy, in a library, once. Its a shame really, always thought it was much better than the mountains of Xanth books they always have... Joel From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Eckhard Huelshoff [EHuelshoff@t-online.de] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 10:27 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Japan's PM Noyes schrieb: > >But why the hell does the whole cabinet want to quit because of Mr. > Obuchi's > >illness? > > Because they derive their power through him. In a vampiric way or does he control them with his magic? >A new PM creates a new cabinet. Sure, but isn't there some kind of vice-PM to lead the government until it is sure wether the PM might get back to work or until it is time for a new election? > > >just girls in school uniforms. In the Louvre: Groups of giggling Japanese > school > >girls. On the Eiffel Tower: Groups of giggling Japanese school girls. In > Notre > >Dame or the Centre Pompidou: The same. > > Well, it's good to hear that the Shibuya cloning plants are keeping up the > good work. But may I ask: Is the giggling genetical engineering or do they have to train it in special schools? > > >Frightening, really frightening. > > Buddy, you aught to live here... > But the strange thing for me is that it seems that nearly all the Japanese tourists you meet in Europe are girls between the age of 16-18 [ though I have to admit that I personally think that it's hard to guess the age of Japanese ] very often in school uniforms. I found this especially confusing when considering the Japanese school girl fetish [ which might well be a cliché ]. I you like them, why send them abroad?? Confused, ECKHARD From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Davide Mana [doctor.dee@libero.it] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 10:59 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Japan's PM Cheers! Eckhard is baffled.... >> Buddy, you aught to live here... >> >But the strange thing for me is that it seems that nearly all the Japanese >tourists you meet in Europe are girls between the age of 16-18 [ though I have to >admit that I personally think that it's hard to guess the age of Japanese ] very >often in school uniforms. I found this especially confusing when considering the >Japanese school girl fetish [ which might well be a cliché ]. I you like them, >why send them abroad?? Because like all true drug fiends, they want to spread the habit. But hey, honestly - better be invaded by giggling teenaged girls than by clones of Ken Takakura (much as I respect the man). And as long as they keep giggling, you know you are not doing bad.... ;> Take care! Davide Mana Torino, Italy doctor.dee@libero.it The Ice Cave - http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/leiber/50/ice_cave.htm From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Davide Mana [doctor.dee@libero.it] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 10:54 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Anthony reconsidered. Greetings. Joel lamented.... >Thing is, its nigh unto impossible to find a copy. i found one copy, in a >library, once. Its a shame really, always thought it was much better than >the mountains of Xanth books they always have... "But What of Earth" is the book in which the connection between demographics and tech level I mentioned earlier is made. It is also sort of a prequel to the tarot trilogy (that is a worth reading IMHO, despite some minor gripes). It was reprinted in '89 and I got my copy from Amazon.com I guess last year, a new edition including the original Anthony text, the editorial comments and cuts proposed by the editing staff, and Anthony's counter-comments. A highly educational reading - better than much 'learn to write' stuff. The mangled original was from Laser Books (IIRC) and is by all means a collector's item. Hope this helps. Davide Mana Torino, Italy doctor.dee@libero.it The Ice Cave - http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/leiber/50/ice_cave.htm From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Eckhard Huelshoff [EHuelshoff@t-online.de] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 11:10 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: DG: Strange Game Show in Germany Good Evening. Did anybody on this list already mention the German TV show "BIG BROTHER" while I was offline? It is a Dutch invention. 10 people [ 5 men, 5 women ] who never met before try to live together in a house for 100 days. They are filmed 7 days a week 24 hours a day. IN EVERY ROOM, IN EVERY SITUATION. Even at night infra-red cameras film the inhabitants. They are not allowed to leave the house, they do not have TV or radio, there is not phone nor are they allowed to write letters. It is basically like prison, but a prison where you are even filmed when you go to the toilet or take shower or receive a blowjob from one of the girls [ happened last week and they showed on TV how her head bobbed up and down under the sheets ]. Everyday the channel shows the best 60 minutes of the day. And, to make things really nasty, every fortnight every inmate has to [ secretely ] nominate two other candidates he wants to get rid off. The results are then told to the candidates. The two inmates with the most nominations are officially nominated and the following week the audience may decide who has to leave the house. The one candidate who stays the longest in the house wins 250,000 Deutsche Mark. The whole show began 4 weeks ago. And of course there was a lot of discussion. Critics - especially church officials - accused the show of violating human rights and - of course - of exploting voyeurism / exhibitionism. But honestly, what began as pure and utter voyeuristic bullshit develops into a psychological of Ingmar-Bergman proportions. And it might very well be an experiment of the Outlook Group. Or it is a Mi-Go experiment to understand the human mind under really strange conditions. And what happens when one of the inmates/candidate has his coming out as a believer in Shub Niggurath? And what if the channel did not really check the mental stability of the candidates very well and one of them goes on a killing spree in the house? ECKHARD From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Mintarr@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 11:10 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Anthony reconsidered. > It was reprinted in '89 and I got my copy from Amazon.com I guess last > year, a new edition including the original Anthony text, the editorial > comments and cuts proposed by the editing staff, and Anthony's > counter-comments. > A highly educational reading - better than much 'learn to write' stuff. > > The mangled original was from Laser Books (IIRC) and is by all means a > collector's item. > > Hope this helps. Much help, thanks. If I didn't have to fork over so much money to the college for my summer trimester I'd order a copy right now. Joel - grumbling about misleading information on fee wavers From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Michael Beck [msb216@is7.nyu.edu] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 11:26 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Strange Game Show in Germany I've heard a rumor that CBS is going to do a show called "Survival", in which they leave seven people (or ten, it varies) on an island and every week the people will choose one person to leave the island. No phones or anything--you have to work together to survive. Of course, there will be cameramen to rescue anyone whose life is in danger. The last person to stay gets 1 million dollars. I have to say, I find this to be rather disturbing. Eckhard Huelshoff wrote: > Good Evening. > Did anybody on this list already mention the German TV show "BIG BROTHER" while I > was offline? > It is a Dutch invention. 10 people [ 5 men, 5 women ] who never met before try to > live together in a house for 100 days. They are filmed 7 days a week 24 hours a > day. IN EVERY ROOM, IN EVERY SITUATION. Even at night infra-red cameras film the > inhabitants. They are not allowed to leave the house, they do not have TV or > radio, there is not phone nor are they allowed to write letters. > It is basically like prison, but a prison where you are even filmed when you go > to the toilet or take shower or receive a blowjob from one of the girls [ > happened last week and they showed on TV how her head bobbed up and down under > the sheets ]. Everyday the channel shows the best 60 minutes of the day. > And, to make things really nasty, every fortnight every inmate has to [ secretely > ] nominate two other candidates he wants to get rid off. The results are then > told to the candidates. The two inmates with the most nominations are officially > nominated and the following week the audience may decide who has to leave the > house. The one candidate who stays the longest in the house wins 250,000 Deutsche > Mark. > The whole show began 4 weeks ago. And of course there was a lot of discussion. > Critics - especially church officials - accused the show of violating human > rights and - of course - of exploting voyeurism / exhibitionism. > But honestly, what began as pure and utter voyeuristic bullshit develops into a > psychological of Ingmar-Bergman proportions. > > And it might very well be an experiment of the Outlook Group. > > Or it is a Mi-Go experiment to understand the human mind under really strange > conditions. > > And what happens when one of the inmates/candidate has his coming out as a > believer in Shub Niggurath? > > And what if the channel did not really check the mental stability of the > candidates very well and one of them goes on a killing spree in the house? > > ECKHARD From: owner-dgrpg@delta-green.com on behalf of Eckhard Huelshoff [EHuelshoff@t-online.de] Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 11:28 AM To: dgrpg@delta-green.com Subject: Re: DG: Japan's PM Davide Mana schrieb: [snip] > > Because like all true drug fiends, they want to spread the habit. > > But hey, honestly - better be invaded by giggling teenaged girls than by > clones of Ken Takakura (much as I respect the man). Or by the Wehrmacht of course. One thing I found pretty interesting about the French is that many [ read: nearly all ] of them do not even try to learn a foreign language. But very often you meet Frenchmen [ and women ] who know some German phrases that they learned from......watching war movies! One of my female colleagues in the law firm amused me by saying things like "Halt Ausweiskontrolle!" or "Schicken Sie die Panzerkompanien und erledigen sie die Amis!" with a French accent. I have to admit that this was somehow sexy. > > And as long as they keep giggling, you know you are not doing bad.... ;> > Probably, but it is also kind of annoying! Especially when you take the stairs, THE STAIRS to reach the top of the Eiffel tower and you are followed by about a dozen of them and they keep on giggling all the exhausting way to the top. ECKHARD