Clueless

 

PuterPlane (an extremely tiny setting): STACKSPACE

STACKSPACE

• STACKSPACE is the area between the planets (like normal space)
• It's also kind of an entity that likes to keep track of whoever floats around in it
• You may always enter STACKSPACE, but to leave either...
• You must be the last being who entered
• Or everyone who entered before you must first leave, in proper order
• The CORRECT ORDER OF THINGS is a large list readable by all beings in STACKSPACE
• It can be downloaded through the waves at 5918.43 MHz
• Lists beings (and their whereabouts) that need to leave before you
• Since it gives away locations, it's a popular tool to use by bounty hunters
• OVERFLOWING STACKSPACE occurs when too many beings enter STACKSPACE, and it can't keep track of them all
• The OVERFLOW causes ALL beings to be flushed onto any random planet in the being's proximity, thus emptying STACKSPACE completely
• Rumour has it that it's possible to enter STACKSPACE during the small window of an OVERFLOW
• You still take up space, but you may leave at any time
• Leaving in this way (improperly, out-of-order) causes noticeable fragmentation ("holes") of the void
• When fragmentation is too high, the COLLECTOR will arrive and:
1. Lock down STACKSPACE (unable to enter or leave)
2. Spend time hunting down beings currently in STACKSPACE, and put them in a neat line
3. When the COLLECTOR feels like the job is done, it will unlock STACKSPACE and flush the neat line onto the nearest planet/sun
• Beings who die in STACKSPACE are still counted for; they too must "leave"
• A few blaster shots most likely takes care of this

Pocketmod: SPÄJS

Sometimes I do pocketmods. They look like crap most of the time but they're fun to make.

And I'll try to upload three versions each time; raw, slightly cleaned-up and transparent.

First out is SPÄJS!

No, I don't know what the numbers represent.

Yes, it folds differently from what the pocketmod folding video shows. Maybe that's an improvement, maybe I was taught wrong, maybe it's a conspiracy.

Enjoy!

(And folding instructions for pocketmods can be found here.)

UPDATE: I've uploaded them to Google Drive in a folder that will keep expanding, since it's impossible to direct-link to the original images from here (where are they???).

Slightly cleaned-up

Raw

Transparent

Horrors in space

There are two things one should have in mind when talking about horrors in outer space:

1. Up til the first physical exploration of space, we were all alone in the universe 
2. Any life out there since then - no matter how twisted or unreal - has its origin down here on Earth 

That is, anything encountered up there is a bastardly remix of something we once sent up on purpose - or just lost by accident somewhere in the thermosphere.

The V-2 rocket (1942)
The first rocket to reach outer space, actually never returned to Earth despite common belief. Became sentient and suicidal after being exposed to a stellar flare in 1981.

40 mice (1960)
Part of the original all animal crew of Korabl-Sputnik 2, these mice never did return safely to Earth. Gnawing through their cage at re-entry, they suddenly hit a power cord just as the shuttle passed through an aurora - causing them to switch places. The caged aurora was never made official.

Имре́к (1962)
Just one of many unofficial and unknown cosmonauts lost during the Vostok programme. At the time, a large translucent mesh passed through our neck of the universe, causing these poor souls to be collected like fish in the sea.

In 1978, a thin purple cord shot out through deep space, attached itself to the mesh and started pulling it in. The cord bumped into the Soviet satellite Kosmos 954, causing it to malfunction and later crash over northern Canada.

Ticks in Space (Santicore 2015 entry)

(Since I haven't seen any signs of life from the Santicore hellves yet, I thought I might as well dump my entry here on the blog)

The request I got for Santicore 2015 was:

"O Secret Santicore, what random horrors could unfortunate adventurers encounter in the darkness of space?"

And I thought, ticks of course! If you want to make your own custom tick mini for your game, just take a potato and stick some toothpicks in it (or just leave them out in the sun a a couple of days, and it'll grow its own appendices).

 

1. Celestial Tick

A celestial tick ranges in size from a small space shuttle, to that of a moon - or larger. Soft celestial ticks are attracted to magnetic fields and will harvest electricity, while hard celestial ticks are drawn to heat and will attach to anything from warp cores to smaller planets.

It’s possible to remove a celestial tick by force, at risk at infecting the host. Rumour has it that tick pirates comes from a planet infected by a vicious tick bite.

2. Tick Ambergris

When a larger celestial tick consumes something it can’t digest or doesn't want, its gastrointestinals will cover it in a thick secretion so that it can pass without harming the tick. As the ambergris leaves the tick’s body and enters space, it will harden and travel indefinitely, sometimes even protecting the unwanted thing in a forced cryosleep.

Things known to have been found in tick ambergris:

1. Lava and pieces of a volcano
2. Small space shuttle containing a crew (living but cryosleeping)
3. A mountain top
4. A smaller celestial tick (see Tick Miners below)

3. Tick Pirates

There’s a remote relative to humans in outer space that’s been successful in utilizing celestial ticks as transporation vessels, from the smaller ones as two-man shuttles, to the rumoured interstellar tick that drifts through the multiverse and houses several thousands of pirates.

On the larger ticks the pirates tend to burrow a bit into the body, to shield against the worst radiation of space.

Things possibly found on a tick pirate:

1. Spear with tip smeared in a mixture consisting of celestial tick nymphs and random droppings
2. Semi-living sextant
3. Boots made of the shell of a hard tick
4. A metallic plaque depicting the Arecibo message

4. Tick Miners

It is rumoured that tick miners are a cybernetic race aiming to regulate the efficiency of celestial ticks. Why they would do that is unknown - maybe they suffered from a planetary tick themselves, who spewed out diseases into their perfect feedback society?

Tick miners - being more robotic than organic, yet lacking a fully-fledged AI found in other parts of the multiverse - perform experiments on celestial ticks of all sizes, without hurting or killing them. At least not intentionally.

Some known augmentations/”corrections” made by tick miners:

1. Drove a planet-sized tick into a sun by increasing its heat fixation through medication
2. Constructed a life supporting exoskeleton for a tick about to die. While the tick didn’t die, the exoskeleton became sentient and soon took over, changing its role as a supporting unit to that of master controller.
3. Constructed a lattice of equally sized, smaller ticks to see if they could fill the gap after the death of one enormous celestial tick (and see if they as a “hive” had a better chance of surviving)
4. Bred a race of smaller ticks that could cover itself in its own ambergris during stressful conditions

Every universe is a lung

Every universe is a lung.

A left lung, more precisely, because it shares space with the heart of that universe, and all life needs some TLC.

The right lung is the parallel universe to that in the left lung. It is bigger but harsher, because of the distance to the heart. Every being existing in the left lung has a mirror version in the right - only robotic. Robots are calculating, cruel and deterministic - they lack a heart.

The alveoli are where the galaxies and planets are; little cavities at the end of the air supply, supporting life (in both lungs, although the robots doesn't technically breathe).

The only way to reach the parallel universe is to travel through a worm hole junction called the Primary Bronchi. But beware, steer clear of the trachea or you may travel to far and eventually leave the body. If so, aim for the nearest mouth, keep going left and pray to your gods that the next universe is a kind one.

Space crap

Crap ideas for slightly crappy drawing:

• The crew of the tiny space faring vessel El Segundo
• From left to right:
•  Doctor-bot C.A.G.A.D.A, specialized in species nobody's heard of
• Captain Mierda, secretly planning to steer the vessel into a sun
• Zurulla, has an evil left arm someone else controls (a droidstalker in a ship closeby)
• Spiderbot Diminutos Caca, contains the former captain's brain currently in hypersleep
• Current mission:
• Deliver the steel crate box they picked up on CULATO XIV to the space port orbiting waste management moon NALGAS MENOR. Note on crate reads (in space common): "PLEASE DO NOT OPEN. PLEASE DO NOT EAT. PLEASE DO NOT ANSWER."
• Selection of previous missions:
• Deliver twelve bottles of fine wine to local president Salchicha Marrón. Failed.
• Deliver several crates of extra heavy potatoes to some farmers. Successful, but the crates sounded a bit too metallic to contain potatoes, and the farmers looked a bit too armed.
• Deliver local ex-president Salchicha Marrón to safety. Failed.
• Rumour table (true or false? Roll 1d10 for the entry, and 1d20 to see if it's true or false: equal or lower = false, otherwise it's true):
1. There's a tiny, non-functional gun on board that could blast away a planet. It's missing a part.
2. Zurulla's helmet is filled with voidspace; the most empty void in the universe
3. The spiderbot can transform into a heat gun
4. The El Segundo clones every time it hypertravels; some of the clones are out to kill them
5. The mirror in the bathroom on deck 2 is actually a telehypervision, displaying a parallel universe
6. The mat in the captain's room is a creature from the planet E. STIÉRCOL II; it lives of sweat
7. The captain steers El Segundo through his feelings
8. C.A.G.A.D.A. is building a half-droid in his room. It is stealing parts from things they're supposed to deliver
9. The droidstalker controlling Zurullas left arm is the original owner of the arm; it wants it back
10. El Segundo can transform into large robot; the spiderbot works as its head when in that shape

The sand lung in Bandar Karahc

In the outskirts of Bandar Karahc you may find a building resembling a bowl turned upside down. It's covered with rusty plates, like a quilt, and it got exactly one entrance in the form of a small hole in the side, big enough for an adult to enter.

Anyone entering will find themselves following a winding, dark tunnel, sloping downward. At the end of the tunnel is a vast shaft, conical and seemingly bottomless.

Every ten minutes, the void fills with sand from the bottom up. It takes around two minutes to completely fill the space, after which the sand slowly descends again into the darkness.

This strange building is in fact the left lung of an interstellar, humanoid machine race.

These robotic creatures travels through the empty space looking for things to do. Although immortal, old age and the occasional plunge into planets' oceans makes their joints rust, leading to the inevitable and complete dismantling of themselves.
When this happens, their body parts spread across the universe, still functional; an arm may go into orbit around a planet, the head ends up in a sun, while the beating heart with its strong pulses may attract thousands of winged creatures from the reddish deep space.

Bandar Karahc got a lung. There are worst parts to get.

Planet Percussion

Planet Percussion is a peculiar little planet.

It orbits the great white sun of SELWAY'S STAR.

One third of the planet's surface consists of a thick membrane, and it works much like trampoline. When this side faces away from the sun, it's pulled towards the core of the planet. When gravity's pull on the membrane diminishes, the membrane is released and great bang is produced.

Dropping things into the membrane is a popular way to shoot things into space, like rockets, waste and criminals.