Since my group's games are scheduled and catalogued over forums, I post a summary at the beginning of every chapter. Back way back with Bastion of Broken Souls, each chapter was accompanied by a short quote that suited the situation; I personally thought that was pretty freakin' awesome and decided to do it for STAP. I have a few already done, but I'm curious if anyone has any suggestions for the ones I've forgotten, or better ones for any of the ones I've already chosen.
Enjoy :)
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"There Is No Honor"
Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behaviour that is often considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business. ~ Robert Rice, The Business of Crime
"The Bullywug Gambit"
My trouble took the strangest form. I could not persuade myself that the men and women I met were not also another Beast People, animals half wrought into the outward image of human souls, and that they would presently begin to revert, to show first this bestial mark and then that. ... I do not expect that the terror of that island will ever altogether leave me. ~ H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau
"The Sea Wyvern's Wake"
(none yet)
"Here There Be Monsters"
(none yet)
"Tides of Dread"
(none yet)
"The Lightless Depths"
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a Grue. ~ Zork I: The Great Underground Empire, 1980
"City of Broken Idols"
All hope abandon, ye who enter in. ~ Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Inferno
"Serpents of Scuttlecove"
(none yet)
"Into the Maw"
He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
"Wells of Darkness"
That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even Death may die. ~ H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
"Enemies of My Enemy"
(none yet)
"Prince of Demons"
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
In peace, there ’s nothing so becomes a man,
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.
~ William Shakespeare, Henry V
"Serpents of Scuttlecove"
Ok, much more on the comedic side, rather than from literature, but I have a couple quickies for you.
"Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes." ~ Indiana Jones
or
"Asps, very bad. You go first." ~ Salah
"Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes." ~ Indiana Jones
"Serpents of Scuttlecove"
Hahahahahahah, I might just use that one :D
Charge of the Light Brigade might be fitting too, for Prince of Demons, if things end badly for the party. :D
Sea Wyvern's Wake
"If his {Rowyn's} chest were a cannon, he would have shot his heart upon it." -- Moby Dick
I must go down to the seas again,
to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship
and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song
and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face
and a grey dawn breaking.
I must go down to the seas again,
for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call
that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day
with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume,
and the sea-gulls crying.
I must go down to the seas again
to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way
where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn
from a laughing fellow rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream
when the long trick's over.
-- John Masefield
Here There Be Monsters -- Fogmire
"Sounds far away."
"Not far enough."
"Rawwr!!!"
-- American Werewolf in London
"I always feeeeel like, somebody's watchin' me."
-- Somebody's Watching Me, Rockwell, 1983
Serpents of Scuttlecove
"Scuttlecove Seaport, you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious." -- adapted from Obi-Wan Kenobi
Enemy of My Enemy
"This is a *smurf* idea. And why? Because this is an obviously *smurf* idea." -- 28 Days Later
"Ever dance with the devil by the pale moonlight? It's something I ask of all my prey. I just like the sound of it." Iggwilv, Jack Nicholson's Joker in Batman
"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you." -- Gwynharwyf, Jules in Pulp Fiction
Prince of Demons
"I say we dust off; nuke the site from orbit. Its the only way to be sure." -- Ripley, Aliens
"The Sea Wyvern's Wake"
(none yet)"Here There Be Monsters"
(none yet)
Here's another light one for one of the above.
Could work for many of them, really.
The John Masefield quote above is one of my all time favs.
Yeah, if "Sea Fever" is good enough to be quoted by James T., its good enough for me.
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"The Sea Wyvern's Wake"
(none yet)
It doesn't think. It doesn't feel.
It doesn't laugh or cry.All it does, from dusk till dawn
Is make the soldiers die.
-Phyrexian Hulk (M:tG)
"Here There Be Monsters"
(none yet)
The fanatic is incorruptible: if he kills for an idea, he can just as well get himself killed for one; in either case, tyrant or martyr, he is a monster.
-Emile M. Cioran"Tides of Dread"
(none yet)
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ;Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
-Rime of the Ancient Mariner
"Serpents of Scuttlecove"
(none yet)
The mediation by the serpent was necessary. Evil can seduce man, but cannot become man.
-Franz Kafka"Enemies of My Enemy"
(none yet)
"The enemy of my enemy is still the enemy..."
-Unknown"You do not need to be stronger than your enemy, you need to be stronger than his enemy. If my enemy is a Lion and his enemy a crane, I should crush the Crane. Thereby, my enemy owes me a favor."
-Tangen's Lies
Another one for "Prince of Demons" that I thought of in my sleep for some reason.
"Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds." ~ Vishnu, Bhagavad-Gita
"Serpents of Scuttlecove"
(none yet)
Speaks for itself...
"You'll not find a more dastardly haven for violence and vice than Scuttlecove." ~ Savage Tidings, DRAGON 355 May 2007 pg. 65
"Here There Be Monsters"
(none yet)
It's probably giving away too much, but I found myself immediately thinking of this:
"Out of the shadows of the cliffs moved a monstrous shambling bulk--an anthropomorphic horror, a grotesque travesty of creation. In general outline it was not unlike a man. But its face, limned in the bright moonlight, was bestial, with close-set ears, flaring nostrils, and a great flabby-lipped mouth in which gleamed white tusk-like fangs..." ~ Robert E. Howard, Shadows in the Moonlight
Alternatively:
"When I was little, we found a man. He looked like - like, butchered. The old woman in the village crossed themselves... and whispered crazy things, strange things. "El Diablo cazador de hombres." Only in the hottest years this happens. And this year, it grows hot. We begin finding our men. We found them sometimes without their skins... and sometimes much, much worse..." ~ Anna, Predator (1987)
Charge of the Light Brigade might be fitting too, for Prince of Demons, if things end badly for the party. :D
Why do I suddenly find myself thinking of Spike's reaction to that? "We few, we lucky few; we band of buggered." *grin*
I'm doing quotes at the beginning of each adventure, too. I try to include one from Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in each one, and some adventures have more than one quote. Here are the ones used or am going to use: (The quotes from Rime of the Ancient Mariner will just be noted as RoTAM)
For some I've used the quote from the title page of that particlar issue of Dungeon, when it applies to the ST adventure.
I should point out that in alot of these, I'm not going for a quote that specifically relates to the adventure, but something that conjures up the feeling of the adventure, even if it's just one line from the quote. This is particularly true of the quotes from 'Mariner that I use. Except for some I found one from 'Mariner' that fit almost perfectly. Check out the one for HTBM!
There is No Honor
"It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
`By thy long beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me ?
The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide,
And I am next of kin ;
The guests are met, the feast is set :
May'st hear the merry din."
RoTAM (first lines)
The Bullywug Gambit
"About, about, in reel and rout
The Death-fires danc'd at night;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green and blue and white.
Four times fifty living men,
With never a sigh or groan.
With heavy thump, a lifeless lump
They dropp'd down one by one.
Alone, alone, all all alone
Alone on the wide wide Sea;
And Christ would take no pity on
My soul in agony."
--RoTAM
The Sea Wyvern's Wake
"Listen, Stranger! Storm and Wind,
A Wind and Tempest strong!
For days and weeks it play'd us freaks--
Like Chaff we drove along."
--RoTAM
Here There Be Monsters
"Like one, that on a lonely road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turn'd round, walks on
And turns no more his head:
Because he knows, a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread."
--RoTAM
Tides of Dread
[I seem to have lost the quote I used for this one, so this is from memory.]
"As long as men travel the sea, there will be piracy."
--ancient Greek quote
The Lightless Depths
"The very deeps did rot: O Christ!
That ever this should be!
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy Sea."
--RoTam
“We fought far under the living earth, where time is not counted. Ever he clutched me, and ever I hewed him, till at last he fled into dark tunnels. They were not made by Durin’s folk, Gimli son of Gloin. Far, far below the deepest delvings of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
“The Lord of the Rings, Volume III”
"Likewise are there dread survivals of things older and more potent than man; things that have blasphemously straggled down through the aeons to ages never meant for them; monstrous entities that have lain sleeping endlessly in incredible crypts and remote caverns, outside the laws of reason and causation, and ready to be waked by such blasphemers as shall know their dark forbidden signs and furtive passwords."
H.P. Lovecraft and William Lumley
"The Diary of Alonzo Typer
I don't have any for the rest of the adventures yet, except in a few cases where I'm gonna use the quote from the issue of Dungeon that has the current adventure in it.
But I like some of the ones that you've picked, Orthos! I think I'll steal 'em.