⭗ REDIRECTIONS XVI⭗

 

⭗ ZOA ON THE MYRTILLE WAY #1 ⭗

⭗ THE VOMISH GLUGMEN ⭗

A Report By Lleva Vyeldisana, Naturalist and Zoa Conservationist

For transmission to the Vert-Kelly University of Natural Sciences, Emerald City.

There are many rumors about the origins of the Glugmen. Po-Dazz, renowned vome-ologist and sigma echelon cat priest of the Esoterica Universalis Guild of the Violet City posits that the Glugmen are a relatively recent creation of a corrupted amphibious autofac, but having witnessed their behavior firsthand as part of the Vermeil Vein Caravan along the course of the Myrtille Way, I hold more with the assertions of the Redland Naturalist-Philosopher Menalo Segstromi, who posits that the Glugmen are actually much older, enduring perhaps even out of the mist-obscured history of Long, Long Ago. My theory (supported by Segstromi's observations and my own study of several ancient crystal discs that were sold to me by a nomad local to the area) is that the glugmen are actually an evolution and naturalization of an ill-fated attempt at life extension from an age approximately thirty-nine centimeters into the local anthrocene layer. Data from the crystal discs seems to indicate that this life extension process involved great preservation tanks where volunteers (or victims– or perhaps people actually paid for this privilege?) would be suspended in a blue liquid that would keep their flesh and minds alive and functional long after their natural lifespan had come to an end. The unforeseen element seems to be that bodies suspended in these tanks had a mutation rate (for both sourcecode and memories) of just less than one percent per century. This was seen as acceptable at the time, but with the passage of millenia, it has built up and created what we now know as the Glugmen. Freed of their tanks at some point in the Long Ago, (and presumably driven mad by the passage of great gulfs of time spent suspended in silence) these mutated and cybernetically augmented humans learned how to survive in the local marshlands, eking out a primitive existence as drowners and ambush predators who prefer the meat of large game (and rainbowlanders) to that of birds and fish. Their appearance is best described as “gooey” and “chrome-studded,” with clammy, steaming skin that ranges between teal and deep sapphire in color, spotted in freckle-esque patterns on their faces and shoulders. Observing their hunting habits (and limited instances of courtship behavior,) I speculate that they must have communal underwater dens where they sleep and raise their young. Either evolution (or their vomish elements - or both) have granted them the ability to breathe underwater no matter how brackish the conditions are, so whether those dens are dry or wet in nature is still a matter of speculation. I have noticed, however, that they have a certain fondness for shiny objects, so I feel safe in positing that they likely hoard such things in their dens. What wonders from Long, Long Ago could be waiting to be discovered in the fens of the Glugmen? One would have to dive down into that cloudy morass to know for sure, but such places are the domain of the Glugmen. Anyone who would dare would doubtless be hunted, and likely overwhelmed, torn apart without even having the opportunity to see their attackers.

I would be remiss to transmit this report without a L.R.U.V.G. classification for the Glugmen. As such, I would classify them individually as Vomish Glugman (L2, Gibbering Drowner).

As a post-script, several interesting individuals have recently joined our caravan on our approach back to the Emerald City. One of them is an older gentleman who I suspect may be a quarterling (further studies over tea and biscuits are in order) while the other two are some kind of powerful ghostly entity (the Blue Oracle, apparently) and her sycophantic polybody follower, who is no doubt some kind of death cultist who believes this “oracle” may be the blue god himself (herself?). I am not convinced. Bluefolk and their superstitions may be entertaining at times, but there is something else going on with this “oracle” and I intend to find out what that is, even if I have to follow them back into the Redlands to do it.

⭗ OUR PARTY (SO FAR) ⭗

Lleva Vyeldisana, Greenfolk Naturalist and Zoa Conservationist

"Charred-Hand" a perfectly ordinary and unassuming wastelander

The Blue Oracle, Dreamer of Dreams

 

Coda-1, Coda-2 and Coda-3, a bluelander polybody pilgrim, allegedly.

⭗ WHAT ARE REDIRECTIONS? ⭗

My goal with REDIRECTIONS is to add my own contribution to the Psychedelic / Heavy Metal / Ligne Claire art RPG space.  Much in the way that people inspired by Tolkien’s style helped give birth to the modern genre of High Fantasy, the style of Jean “Moebius” Giraud (and others like him) seems to be spawning a sort of genre of its own right now, and I want to expose more people to the wonders of it. I want to share it. I want to be a part of it. Most of all, I want it to grow.

    REDIRECTIONS is a collection of wondrous places and resources presented in story format (as a game in play, specifically traversing the universe of UVG (Ultraviolet Grasslands) but it is also kept more general for your own RPG characters to visit and explore regardless of the system you use. Each place is unique and wholly original, with a bevy of interesting stories, plot hooks and characters to color your experience. The format and many of the specific terms are from UVG. I'm just playing in Luca Rejec's universe. If you like these posts and find them useful, let me know! As of this point, all art in these posts is created as a collaboration with AI. Basically I trained an AI art model on my own sharpie marker drawings, then generated a bunch of pictures and trained a series of other models on them. I generate images with these models, sometimes using these as source images, and sometimes using these models to refine output from DALLE-3. There is, literally, in every image, a little bit of me. Consider these images to be homages to the genre and pretty pictures, but nothing more. I greatly respect the skill of people who work with pen and pencil and have the skill of hand to make things from scratch. This is a series, and each entry is numbered. If you like things like this, please support the true artists whose works are part of the genre, such as the works of Moebius, Luka Rejec's Ultraviolet Grasslands, Luke Gearing's Acid Death Fantasy and Raw Fury's game SABLE.