[HoE] Re: Survey of yadda-yadda

[Frederick M Zeleny <zeleny+@andrew.cmu.edu>]

First of all, a bunch of spoiler space...







Don't read below unless you're a Marshal!  If you are just a player and
read below, not only will nifty secrets be revealed in a
less-than-spectacular manner, but your eyes will swell up to the size of
grapefruits and throb unpleasantly!  It isn't very fun, trust me.





Alright, now that the spoiler space is taken care of...

Excerpts from mail: 5-Jul-99 hoe-digest.19990705 by hoe-owner@gamerz.net 
> Also remember that Raven is planning to off the Reckoners (somewhere in the
> Marshall's section in the Wasted West Sourcebook. Personally, I think Stone
> will decide that he's killed every type of thing he can ever expect to
> meet, and there's just not much left that can even challenge him. Except
> for the Reckoners. And the quote about Hellstrom mentions that the
> Reckoners had best beware. I think that at least those three, possibly with
> a reincarnated or ghostly Grimme, will take on and destroy the Reckoners.
> Or, if done in a sourcebook, they will weaken them to the point that a
> group of highest-level PCs can take them on, thus offering you the chance
> to save the world.

I have to agree that such a gathering of (ex) Mega-Servitors would be
quite an adventure, but I have to disagree about them destroying the
Reckoners.  My prediction, for what it's worth, is that they won't all
join together for quite a while (if at all).  I predict that Doc
Hellstromme will be around in the Iron Oasis book (or at least mentioned
a good deal more), and may very well be a part of the adventure that
leads into Lost Colony (who better to deal with the Tunnel?).  Raven and
Stone seem unavoidably linked, however; something about the Reckoners'
First Harrowed And Golden Boy and the Original Helper Embittered Towards
His Masters.  I see quite a show-down between the two as inevitable, but
probably not for a while.  Maybe much later in the Hell On Earth series;
I don't see it happening so much in Lost Colony, because that series
seems like it should be humans having a slightly better chance directly
against the Reckoners.  At least, if the series is following trilogy
type storylines: First one is set-up and introduction of main characters
and ends with introduction of major conflict (Devil's Tower; Reckoners
winning against all odds and getting Earth Nuked).  The second one is
has the darkest setting and sets the antagonists as being nearly
unstoppable, and it ends with the protagonists making some minor victory
against them that shows the antagonists' weakness (heroes succeed in
using the distrust and hatred of the servitors against each other; Raven
and Stone destroy each other.  Alternately, humanity's virtues prove to
be their strength; Hellstromme-turned-good gives humans information and
leads them to the Lost Colony, where the Reckoners' weakness lies).  In
the final installment, the protagonists are still on the losing side,
but have the elements of victory within their grasp (the chance to avoid
fully repeating on the Anouks the mistakes they made with the Native
Americans; joining together to work against the real source of the
conflict, etc.).

One way or another, the Reckoners can't be fully destroyed.  As
countless fantasy and sci-fi stories have told us, as long as evil
exists in the hearts of men, yadda yadda yaddda...

FZ!

Quote of the Moment:

"Sorry, pals.  It must have been the psycho demon that lives in my skull."
-Floyd the Ineffective Harrowed, the man who put the "Dud" in "Dude"...