A Contest Full of Hot Air

Just the other day I was saying to myself and maybe another person on G+ "Contests are fun and I lament that I have no prizes to give away or else contests would be a thing I do."  I mean, I do have assets to give to prize-winners but I am smeagolish on hard copies of Old Skool things since these are the second times I've acquired most of it and such.  There was a snag on my own digital product that I am too lazy to rectify that hangs up the bestowal of that thing on Champions and Victors as freebies - when my act is together I may rectify this but I have little patience for customer service email or queues, these days.

But the Steam sale occurred recent-like, roughly coincident with me running Into the Odd by Chris McDowall and published by Paolo Greco.  It's a charming little thing and it seemed tight like a drum and ready to play and I don't know that we played it as much as I talked it out like drone drone drone adjective noun verb give me a saving throw

Anyway, enough self-criticism - I had fun, and I think they had fun - and incidentally airship travel, both short-distance and long-voyage came up again as a trope. Like in big-ass fantasy blimps and also teeny-tiny little taxi dirigibles where you murderhobo the proprietor and he falls over the edge of the basket and swings like a meat pendulum spurting blood in graceful arcs, and the City Watch blimps close in and do you want to navigate the thing through the gap in the giant ziggurat sewer system or ditch it and run like hell through the shitty Frothing Gates?

I digress again.  The airships. I don't know why I'm fascinated with them. I dig steampunk, I guess, but not like these kids these days.  Not my standard cup of tea. I like my fantasy slightly more advanced than medieval with printing presses and I'm beginning to dig the notion of trains and dirigibles.  Guns. Not just arquebuses but AUTOARQUEBUSES.  Maybe a postal system like in later-era Discworld.  Then there was the Airwhales of the Ashen Sea, above the Glassine Wastes but maybe they deserve another post sometime.

What does this mean, Mr #noahtax?  Yeah maybe a post on that later!  So, I bought some multiplayer dirigible warfare game on Steam and the price was cheep and so I have 4 or 5 codes to give away.

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/15996/

But then, that's not a contest if you just give it away!  So maybe hit me with a flying blimp-hunting predator or a character or some sophisticated technology or a blimp and crew or some fluff or a DW move - anything fun and blimp-y and a little different.   Seems like I seen a bunch of goggle-y eyed captains and air pirates etc and little Mecha-mechanics in school girl outfits. Gimme some dirigible related stuffs and i put you in for a steam code (I think there's 4 or 5 left in the package).  Note: I hear the game is good but can't vouch for it, yet, seeing as how I got sucked into Batman: Arkham City last week.  So this could be one of those things where it's a contest that is not a fun prize, but it looks like it's well-supported and got a DLC community built in via Steam

If you find yourself unable to win a Steam thing, I get you a free DIGITAL COPY of HHSOLO1 and anyway I will lower the price for the New Year and add some content for everyone that bought it already.

On the Amtrak to Manhattan right now - if you're into the Christmas thing then have a merry one and happy Hannukah (tonight is the last night maybe?) and I'll catch you in '15

The Bagwhale Transports of the Fungoid Island Peoples

Hanging above the Glassine Wastes are the Drifting Lands, suspended by weird Sorceries and sometimes tethered to the ground far below. Many are smallish and grow only bare moss or Insectoid Flitter nests, but some are vast and have been settled, or were settled before the cataclysm that lifted the Aereth into the sky and irradiated the land beneath.  The clever indigenous peoples have harnessed the power of flight by domesticating many mutanti species - one of which is the graceful and placid Bagwhale. These are used for carrying trade goods to other floating islands above the caustic Ash Sea below, and the Panthrydactylae are used for hunting and air-combat.

Although the hunters and scouts must be initiated into the mysteries of the fungal pods to communicate to the Panthrydactylae, anyone with some calcium ore or bones or other foods can wheedle a Bagwhale into service. They float through the well-understood process of protonation and hydrogen accumulation in fleshy sacs on their dorsal regions. Baskets are slung below and they are gently directed with taps and music and drum beats. The western Sky-Islands are famous for their singing Bagwhales that (so it is said) can remember the shattered beauty of the lands below as they once were.

This hydrogen buoyancy places Bagwhales at great danger for explosion when attacked by electrical discharge or open flame - almost unheard of amongst the peoples of the Floating Islands but very commonly used by The Howling Raiders and their shoggoth-powered skiffs.

maybe some DCC stats for this in a bit.

NY I am almost in you 

Into The Odd - The Haunted Bubblegum Factory

There you go, that's it.  Pretty self explanatory for my main man +Alex Chalk

There's your prompt, sir - see Chris M.'s freebie for gum brands at:

http://soogagames.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/bastions-favourite-gum-brands.html

"A factory, riddled with paranormal activity, and it still makes/once made a popular brand of chewing gum"

It's going to need vats, and big paddles in giant mixers, and maybe it's automated or there are workers that do it artisanal style

It doesn't need to be haunted, I guess. Infested?  occupied?  one of those might suit you better.

Also, there should be a way to work in a catchy jingle and some competing brands of awful but rare (and thus prized) candy or candy bars and gum

GO

To preempt the most obvious monster:

"The Gum Wraith

In the year 189X, before this country's fixation on The Fine Arts of the Springy Chaw, only a few small Gum Guilds existed, and they mainly served the wealthy in Bastion's Upper Crust.  The owner of Horace's Hoary Horehound brand (one Flernt McTrode, Esq.) was known to use whatever herbal ingredients were at hand in his special proprietary blend of "27 Secret Herbs and Spices" sometimes varying the recipe by as much as 15 ingredients more or less - usually less.  In the autumn of that year, during a particularly harsh economic downturn coinciding nicely with a drought, Mssr. McTrode purchased in haste and error a brick of wormwood harvested in the light of the moon in a potter's field. For the shillings he saved (which he and his wife quibbled over incessantly and that drove her to cuckold him) he let loose a minor catastrophe.  Beginning with the disappearance of his wife, there followed in the district a great number of vanishings, of people of all rank and station.  All were creditors to McTrode, and some had romantic linkages to his wife and her sister - McTrode patiently explained to the press that Mdm McTrode was on a fur-buying expedition on the continent and would be back when the fashion season commenced again.

When the truth was revealed - his animosity and pent up embarrassment managed to animate whole vats of chicle mixed with his latest blend - McTrode was tarred and feathered and the Triple H brand was liquidated and the proceeds sold to the widows of the district.  Madame McTrode returned from her vacation to find herself a pauper and her husband a fugitive from Bastion.  He is reported to have travelled the country advising other learned craftsmen, and was influential in rise of the Chewing Gum Craze of the 1920's.

a Gum Wraith is an animate and dimly aware mass of fermented Chewing Gum, animated by spite or other strong emotions.  It attacks with Big Chomping Teeth for 1d6 per round, and on a Critical Hit it will swallow the character in question. Any successful melee hits upon it require a Dexterity save or else the attacker is stuck fast in the mass. a successful Strength saving throw will free him or her, but allies can pull him or free by sacrificing an action for a full round.  Cold effects will do improved damage, and heat will do reduced damage and allow the Gum Wraith two attacks per round.

If swallowed, a PC is likely lost but permanent injuries may be sustained instead at the Judge's and players' discretion.