Templar Tuesday

Château de Chenonceau

ChAteau_de_Chenonceau

Swords, Lord of he Rings

Swords, Lord of he Rings

List of Knights Templar  sites

With their military mission and extensive financial resources, the Knights Templar funded a large number of building projects around Europe and the Holy Land, many of which structures remain standing today.

List_of_Knights_Templar_sites

Vina Manor

Vina Manor, Built in honor of the hero Vinadrun. She was the first Elf to be awarded honors besides the Matriarch herself. Fitting for someone of the Matriarch's bloodline to be the next honored Elf.

The 10 Most Brutal Moments in 'The Savage Sword of Conan'!

The 10 Most Brutal Moments in 'The Savage Sword of Conan'!

As you may expect from his reputation, there are very few characters in the Conan who manage to get on his bad side twice. As seen in “The Ghouls of Yanaidar” from Savage Sword of Conan #32, though, it does happen occasionally.

In this case, Conan runs afoul of some old enemies while trying to con them into making him the king of a lost city (you know, as one does), and surprisingly, he even offers to put old differences aside for the time being.

Unfortunately for Virata and Olgerd, they decide to take Conan prisoner and kill him. You can probably guess how well that works out for them.

Yep: Conan grabs a knife out of another dude’s belt and then proceeds to kill everyone in the room. And it doesn’t stop there, either — he goes on to kill even more of Olgerd’s soldiers, including grabbing one and killing him by jumping off a tower and using the soldier’s body to cushion his fall, then carrying the corpse around on his back as a human shield while people shoot arrows at him. Then he fights a yeti. And that’s just the first half of the story.

You or I would call that as one of the most badass adventures of all time. Conan refers to it as “Tuesday.”

For a guy who is almost never seen on a book cover without the company of what I think I’m legally required to refer to as a “lusty wench,” Conan has some serious woman troubles. Take Naia, for instance, a woman Conan met in “Secret of Skull River,” who flirtily offered him “anything he might desire” if he’d kill her boyfriend for her while striking a pose that was only subtle in that it didn’t have a neon arrow pointing at her ladybits. Oh, and by the way, her boyfriend was an evil wizard.

Needless to say, this caused no end of trouble for our favorite Cimmerian, but as killing wizards is the closest thing to a steady job Conan has ever had, he managed it in the end. Then came time to claim his reward:

Oh, snap!

Not only does he cold shove her out of the way, but he throws out a line about being “worth riding twice” that might be the sickest burn on a wench’s sexual prowess of all time. Seriously, it might not be quite the same definition we started with, but that’s unquestionably the most brutal breakup I’ve ever seen.

Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor Smith’s adaptation of “Red Nails” is often regarded as a high point in Conan comics. It’s a beautifully drawn adaptation of Howard’s last Conan story that does a great job of balancing action with the creepy, claustrophobic atmosphere of the original story, in a way that could only have been done as a comic.

And it also has a scene where Conan fights a dinosaur.

That’s not even the climax, either. It’s page six.

The only thing that keeps it from being higher on this list is that even though it’s pretty awesome to see Conan just smacking at a dinosaur with his broadsword, he doesn’t actually finish the job — the dinosaur ends up running headfirst into a tree and dying from the impact. Then again, if you can somehow hit a dinosaur so hard that it’s driven to committing suicide, you are pretty hardcore.

You may have noticed that this is the point of the countdown where things have shifted away from Conan fighting people and more towards Conan fighting monstrous animals. It happens pretty often in the stories, for the simple reason that once you hit a certain point, people don’t really present a believable challenge.

As a result, stuff like this happens a lot.

Admittedly: This is not Conan’s best gorilla fight. That happens in my all-time favorite Conan story, Rogues In The House, in which Conan is forced to wrestle a gorilla that thinks it’s a wizard. But keep in mind the following:

a) This means that Conan has fought gorillas multiple times.

b) This one is referred to as “a travesty of creation,” one of the most metal ways to describe something.

And most importantly…

c) He cuts the gorilla’s arm off immediately and the fight then goes on for another two pages, with the Gorilla trying to murder Conan with its bloody stump. It doesn’t end until after Conan has stabbed it, and I quote, “again and again into the groin.”

At this point, I think we can all agree that Conan flipping out and killing a bunch of people isn’t really anything out of the ordinary, but this scene from Savage Sword #8’s “Corsairs Against Stygia” is worth mentioning for a couple of reasons:

Even for Conan, hacking his way through a literal boatload of pirates is pretty impressive, but what puts it over the top is the fact that this story takes place well after Conan becomes King of Aquilonia and “retires” from the adventuring life. Sure, his retirement tends to be about as permanent as, say, Ric Flair’s, but still. This is the softest Conan has ever been or will ever be, and he is still kicking so much ass that the dude in the foreground is having a nervous breakdown just from being in the vicinity.

Speaking of Conan being the King of Aquilonia, some of you may not be familiar with just how Conan went from being a barbarian thief from Cimmeria to genuine royalty. To make the long story of “Conan The Liberator” in Savage Sword #52 short, it went pretty much like you’d expect, and involved his predecessor deciding it would be a good idea to try to poison Conan with a knife.

And that’s pretty much how it happened. And judging by Panel 4, I have to imagine that was a pretty awkward conversation with the rest of the Aquilonian government.

“Mitra’s breath! You just murdered the king!”

“…but, well, I mean, he was a tyrant, so I guess we should just say thank you. Now, if we go by the line of succession, I guess our new king is…”

“Uh, why, it looks like it’s you! Here’s your crown please don’t kill us all.”

When you’ve got a character who’s as physically dominant and unstoppable at Conan, the natural instinct has to be to create a villain who provides a mental or emotional challenge. That’s exactly what happens in Savage Sword #22’s “Black Tears,” in which an ancient goddess uses her mystic powers to… well, to do this:

That’s right: She airbrushes him onto the side of the most wicked awesome van ever attacks him with a crushing sense of existential horror, sending his soul reeling into the vast emptiness of an uncaring universe! It’s the sort of thing that twists a mind to realize how insignificant he is, driving them screaming into Lovecraftian madness!

What could one possibly do when faced with such unfathomable horror?!

..

Conan the Barbarian, everyone: Proving once again that there is no problem he cannot solve by stabbing it right in the face.

Every now and then, a physical challenge does show up to test Conan’s mettle, like “Shadows in Zamboula” from Savage Sword #14, which introduces the massive warrior Baal-Pteor. His specialty is strangling people, which he’s done since he was a kid.

This, of course, leads to two solid pages and twelve panels of him and Conan standing there with their hands around each other’s necks, trying to throttle each other in absolute silence. Until this:

Not only are Conan’s neck muscles too ripped to give way, Conan also has the strength to throw him down and snap his neck while still trash talking him for his inferior strangling technique. Harsh.

From the rest of this article, might’ve gotten the idea that Conan is a hard guy to get along with, but really, that’s not the case. He’s a perfectly friendly guy, assuming that you make sure to follow a few very simple rules, as outlined in “Pool of the Black One” from Savage Sword #32.

In this story, Conan shows up on another pirate ship and after answering the captain’s question of how he got there with the ultra badass “I swam,” he sets about making some friends. But then, one of the crewmen decides to step to Conan.

This isn’t just the worst mistake of his life, this is the worst mistake of anyone’s life. Ever.

And that is how Conan makes new friends.

Remember way back at the top of the list when I talked about how those guys were old enemies of Conan’s? Well, the first time they crossed his path was in “The Tree of Death,” and for the most brutal moments in Savage Sword of Conan, there’s no competition for what gets the top slot.

Because this is the story where they straight up crucify Conan and leave him in the desert to die. Nails through the arms and everything. And to make matters worse, there are vultures circling that don’t intend to wait until he’s finished dying to rip the flesh from his bones.

Now, when you’re faced with multiple problems like that, it often helps to break them down into more manageable pieces, and for Conan, it all starts with those birds. So in order to improve his situation…

…HE TEARS ITS THROAT OUT WITH HIS TEETH AND DRINKS ITS BLOOD TO STAY ALIVE WHILE NAILED TO THE TREE OF DEATH. There is not enough boldface type in the world for how badass that is.

Of course, he eventually gets free and then goes back to kill the ever-loving hell out of the guys who put him up there in the first place, but c’mon. At this point, that was a given.

Read More: The 10 Most Brutal Moments in 'The Savage Sword of Conan'! | http://comicsalliance.com/conan-comic/?trackback=tsmclip

Sword Art Mystara

Viking keys and Lock

IRON MAN GAMMA PROTOCOL

Tony Stark uses his Hulkbuster suit and goes toe to toe with the Hulk in this action packed original fan film!

make sure to watch it in full 1440p resolution and turn it up :)
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British Isles 2100

The British Isles of 2100 100 meter water rise

Middle earth overlay maps

. Europe over Tolkien’s Middle Earth.

 And over the USA, attempting to accurately visualize the journeys of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings.

Map Of Free City Of Greyhawk

Map Of Free City Of Greyhawk with locations

(31) Early Medieval Motte and Bailey by Pierre Joubert

(31) Early Medieval Motte and Bailey by Pierre Joubert | Ancient Peoples & Places | Pinterest

Peddlers notes

Merchants

Traveling peddlers around the realms.


The life of a traveling peddler could be as light and care free as any minstrel or as much about drudgery as any miser depending on the outlook and area traveled by them. Peddlers traded in small usable everyday objects that would be needed in the markets in their traveling area; around six to twelve miles for the various market days. A full purse from a market could make the traveling a light hearted affair moving from inn to inn with a private room and bath to celebrate the arrival of the fair, But a just a wrong purchases or a too heavy handed tax man and it back to the alewives common room

Market days they were very lucky if were they compensated by the local lord. Foreign traders were required to change money into local coins and sometimes were delayed by law up to two hours before they could enter the fair so as to let the locals get first crack at items. Also tax collectors could remove items from tables as part of the lords’ tax. So as a means to grant favors to kinsmen lords could grant a fair untaxed for one of their vassals so that they curry favor with the merchant class.

Records show that 2400 market days were held within a given year. This did not account for annual trade fairs which highlighted the locally produced goods. These produced revenue in the form of taxes and fines and rents. Cost of transporting goods to a market was calculated at 1.4 to 3 percent of the cost of the goods depending if it is transported by water or land. Also what was to be paid to the workers that helped with portages and tax collection points were worked out by a right of trade agreement set by the merchants and the local lords the choice made by the worker for either a cloak, gloves or food. Plus a cash payment to the toll collector based upon number of items or type going up river or down.

Gold was rarely seen by a peddler as the people used mostly copper and silver pennies minted by the government. Gold was used by the government itself for large purchases of land and ships. Then those were usually transferred with purchase agreements signed by the parties involved. Banking could exist in a fantasy setting by the use of a series of money lenders and guild exchange houses that have given them their members a set rate for funds deposited with others in lue of hard cash. Trade bars are used by costars where they are minted but are usually given a discount the further away they are traveling from its origin point. Peddlers could also exchange money for the local fixed merchants at a higher rate as they are returning to the trade bars point of origin so that the local’s blacksmith and tavern can take these forms of currency

Peddlers travel only short distances for their markets and good average around 8 miles. The farther the distance the greater the increase in the cost of the items. Areas with several villages would have several traveling peddlers where as a small isolated town may only have the peddlers who have it as a turning point or destination who may arrive with wagon loads of goods to service the populace. Groups of peddlers could work the same circuit at alternating times of years to take advantage of the seasonal needs of the area or the desires of the locals. After all if there is no money or barter items available then the trip is wasted time and distance.

Other merchants or traders would buy and sell as they went along to a targeted destination. This was done by the Polo’s as they ventured east, Glass and Venetian trade goods to the Holy Land then Holy Oil to Christian enclaves east on the silk road then onto China. In the game Mercers could be sending agents/buyers along trade routes to find new suppliers of raw or finished goods to bring back to their locations to sell. These agents may be able to act directly for the merchant or they may have some instant way of direct communication via magic. These agents and or mercers are looking go the quickest way to the most profit and are looking to cut corners on travel and time spent on the road, cheap animals and way station points for the coaster to resupply and rest.

Merchants are more generalized in their business pattern such as taking a wagon north to the dwarves mines. selling pots and pans on the way to the villages and when they arrive at the mine they can convert all the unsold pots and pans to be made in to pig iron and anvils. They then return back to the south selling the pig iron and anvils to all the smithies along the way and picking up fancy worked iron from the smiths to sell in the city when they return, setting the cycle to repeat.

Mercers have a general location that they are buying and transporting to, to sell in their home towns or trying to open a new market for any overflow goods from their main market location . Sometimes they are attempting to be rid of older and damaged goods by selling out in the sticks. Beware, this is what set Washington against his British trading partners. Also, the city that I have lived in and done business in for the last twenty-two years was founded by a man who wanted to unload water damaged calico from the Erie canal. So the mercer could be the buyer from the above Iron merchant.

Some enterprises required that shares be sold to see the risk spread. Amounts several individuals and profits shared by those who risked more in the beginning, Ships are a major example with them costing in game terms tens of thousands of gold shares being bought and resold as peoples fortunes ebbed and flowed. shares in a boat being built could be considered better collateral then one at sea after all in the middle ages 4 out of ten ships did not return to their home port and in certain times it was as high as 7 out of ten due to pirates and weather. But years until a merchant man’s return was also not that uncommon. Leading to the old saying when my ship comes in, I can redeem my shares. This could also lead to new treasure possibilities for your game, a chest filled with various ship shares that have yet to return.

Merchant guilds exist to help run the mercantile life of the city some of them going as far as to say who can sell what where and when such as in London fish caught above a certain stream could only be sold up to a certain bridge and never below it. Produce could only be hold in one square and butchery was to take place along the route to the river. The merchants guild could also work towards better trade rights the other guild and city rulers. city fines and fees to the advantage of their members.

Tradesman or craft guild exist to help buy in bulk and apprenticing rights and services. Fathers could place a son with the guild for a certain fee. Paid to the guild in either money or property. The sons would then begin their servitude with the guild until they were given journeyman status and then could travel freely about to establish themselves with in the union.

Next part who works for merchant the NPCs and what they do.