The Apprentice’s Tale Part 6: Medicine
over 6 years ago
– Wed, Sep 27, 2017 at 04:55:44 AM
The other reason we left guard duty was that I took a nasty cut to my sword arm. My master always told me that he needed me to watch his back. By the time I was 21 this was actually true, and I needed a good arm to do it.
Our physicians are well educated in anatomy, and skilled at the ugly art of surgery. Like most drugs, their anesthetics are dangerously strong, and difficult to dose safely. However, they are well-known and widely available, provided the physician’s price can be met.
My cut was treated with a peculiar gum derived from trees in the canyon-forest of Wyeth. Wyeth gum is antiseptic, and firms quickly when applied to a wound. It acts as a coagulant, stopping bleeding, yet is porous enough to allow drainage. Wounds treated this way heal quickly and leave only light scars. My arm recovered swiftly, though it still aches from time to time.
If a wounded person is treated quickly enough, they can often return to at least light physical labor within hours. I have heard soldiers boast that with a vial of Wyeth gum and a pitcher of liquor, they can fight until the end of days.
Keep voting on Postcards & Next stretch goal
over 6 years ago
– Wed, Sep 27, 2017 at 02:48:14 AM
Good morning fellow Martians,
We're getting postcards! We've made our stretch goal, so will be creating digital postcard images. Keep voting in the Kickstarter comments on which City you'd like from our 6 choices: Battlehymn, Coronal, Foresight, Illium, Vance and Zodiac. We'll keep counting votes all through the next stretch goal as well... which is:
At $32,000 - City of the Towered Tombs Part 3 - Words and Deeds. Join Vance's religious factions, professional guilds, and political parties, from the Seven Dead Men to the Most Honorable Insurer's Union to the Society of the Bloody Orchid. This will be released as a PDF that we will send to all backers who pledge for a reward tier that include a CAVALIERS OF MARS core book PDF.
So, welcome aboard to all of the latest backers, and let's all keep spreading the word!
Citizens & Outsiders achieved - now on to POSTCARDS
over 6 years ago
– Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 04:58:48 PM
Hello fellow Martians!
We've crossed the threshold for our stretch goal, which means we've unlocked "City of the Towered Tomb - Part 2: Citizens & Outsiders." It's sure to be a fantastic resource for all Game Masters.
And, speaking of the City-States of Mars, on to the next stretch goal!
At $28,000 - POSTCARDS FROM MARS - Three scenic images of astounding Martian locations. Let your friends know you wish they were here! This will be released as a digital image file that we will send to all backers who pledge for a reward tier that include a CAVALIERS OF MARS core book PDF.
Which locations would you like to see - let's VOTE IN THE COMMENTS!
Please join us in the Comment section of our Kickstarter page to make your vote count. You can choose three from the following: Battlehymn, Coronal, Foresight, Illium, Vance, and Zodiac.
The Apprentice’s Tale Part 5: Warfare
over 6 years ago
– Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 05:00:02 AM
My master was not alone in living by the sword. Indeed, he was slower to draw it in anger than many of those he associated with. In this world, everything of value must be protected with force, whether by fending off desert raiders and canal pirates, or marching across the desert to defend an oasis town. While we are not by nature murderous, we are often driven to violence to protect what is ours and take what we need from others.
Most warfare is conducted at little greater than arms’ length. Knives and spearpoints are made from bone. When I was 15, I offended the honor of a young gentleman. Or, rather, I refused both his advances and his demands for my food. Ringed by his friends, we fought a traditional duel. I slew him. After all, I was hungrier. But afterwards, I retched for hours.
We left town under something of a cloud, but when we next reached civilization, my master gave me my first steel dagger. Metal weapons are valuable indeed, for quality steel comes only from Surtur or the forges of far Deimos.
Our most common firearm is the flintlaser, which is slow to reload but deadly and reliable. My master insisted that I carry at least one flintlaser ready to fire at all times, a practice I have not abandoned.
Many sorts of beast are employed as cavalry mounts. Flying terros and their landbound cousins, the ostoros, are difficult to tame but highly prized. My master was a peculiar breed of cutthroat, a cavalier who could ride all manner of beast. Cavaliers keep their methods close to their chests, but more than one has found employment training the army of a city-state or hill-tribe in the mastery of a particular mount. I learned riding from my master as I grew to womanhood and we spent more and more time on the road. Someday, I think, I shall teach another, provided the world lives that long.
Illium and Zodiac both possess flying ships, based upon a secret anti-gravity element. When I was 16, my master and I were caught in a bombardment by Illium’s forces. We spent the entire night lying flat on the floor, hoping that no bombs would fall upon the hovel we had commandeered. I didn’t sleep a wink, between the explosions outside and the cooling body of the homeowner lying next to me.
The capability to unleash such horrors makes most cities afraid to challenge Illium or Zodiac on the field of battle. Fortunately for the rest of us, the long enmity between the two states prevents either from reaching too far.
Wars between the city-states are sudden and short. At 19, I fought alongside my master in one of Vance’s mercenary companies. In that year as a soldier, I probably learned as much of the world as I did in the entire six prior. When the war ended, we were once again unemployed, and took to guarding caravans for a while. Truthfully, we rarely had to draw steel. Most of the bandits were people we had fought beside in the war.
Still, from time to time, we were forced to kill former comrades. He never told me aloud, but I believe that is why we soon left the caravans to seek our fortunes in the lost places.
The Apprentice’s Tale Part 4: Peoples of Mars
over 6 years ago
– Mon, Sep 25, 2017 at 04:55:59 AM
Mars is home to many peoples. The most numerous are the Red Martians, of which I am one. We are the common people of the Red Cities, and I suppose I must admit that our rulers are of the same descent.
We share our history with the Pales, though you’d hardly know it to see them. They are giants, and my master fought not a few. The Pales stand over a dozen feet, with four arms. I would not have believed that every one of those hands could hold a sword, but I have seen it with my own eyes – and been lucky to survive. Their eyes are large, their hair black and long, and their mouths sport two small tusks.
Like us, they are the descendants of desert nomads who survived the drying of the seas and the fall of the cities of the First Martians. Unlike us, they choose to reclaim these cities. Of course, there are not many of them anymore – the First Cities are dangerous places, as is the open desert – yet they live in small settlements among rebuilt ruins. I have heard them called a savage race, but my master often said that we are no less savage. For, if we were not, how could we survive in a world that also contains them?
We Reds and Pales are not alone, of course. The Zaius, sought after as physicians and wise men, resemble the apes even more than we. The women of Wyeth are as much plant as animal, and much feared as warriors. The Skarruts survived where most other lizards died, evolving to generate heat within their own bodies. And there are others, smaller, stranger peoples who might be found in the bazaars of Vance or their own lost cities.
Whence came so many peoples and the fragments of culture we share is unknown to me. I’ve heard it said that we were created by the First Martians, each with some purpose in a grand design. Some astrologers claim that we were seeded from distant stars, that the First Martians themselves were survivors of some earlier, more beautiful world. My master, though he could wax philosophical given enough drink, dismissed these questions as the domain of scholars hunched over books and bones. I myself think that when our world truly lived, it was simply abundant in all things, thinking creatures included.
During my apprenticeship and in the years beyond, I have never met a man quite like my master…yet I have met many who share the same wanderlust, the same greed, and the same passion for reckless adventure. I have met these among all the people I have encountered on our Red World. For some, there is no place in life but that carved with the point of a sword.
