Gaming the Labyrinth - the inhabitants

I started posting about 'Labyrinth'. I've made a few notes about the general idea of trying to game it and some of the trickier aspects of how to translate something like the film to something like D&D, or possibly my newly-acquired game, Blue Rose (earlier post linked here). Photos have all been taken from the blog 'The Labyrinth' which seemed like a handy source. I tried to use the pics at IMDB, but they were all tiny so I gave up. It seemed really tedious to find more pics from different sources so I just went there and used what I could find. All photos are (c) TriStar Pictures.

Some of the inhabitants of the Labyrinth, Goblin City and Castle are pretty straightforward to translate into D&D terms. For Blue Rose, maybe not so much, but I'm sure I'll be able to find some ways to do at least some of it when I'm more familiar with the system. I've checked up what some of the characters are called, so will use the IMDB nomenclature.

Jareth

Jareth "is an Elf" in my notes. Seems obvious, and specifically, a Dark Elf. Also, sometimes disguises himself as a little old lady, or turns into an owl. He seems to sometimes use this latter ability to travel long distances (so it's a real transformation, not an illusion): at other times his mode of long-distance travel is not clear, but I'm going to assume it's always owl-form. He has crystal balls (steady at the back) which can become a peach with a forgetting spell (which wastes time, a vital resource in Sarah's quest) or a kind of floating bubble. He also has some illusion skills - he seems to transform a bubble into a crystal into a snake into a scarf, possibly then a Goblin... which (if any) are real is difficult to grasp (and the scarf may just fall on a Goblin already there). So they could be actual transformations or illusions. He possibly uses the bubbles to transport others to and from the Castle, but perhaps this is illusion too. If he's an Elf, he has a pretty direct Blue Rose equivalent - he could be some kind of corrupt(ed) Vata (a race similar to Elves; there are two sub-races called Vata'an and Vata'sha. Jareth is probably a Vata'an as they have pale skin and silver hair, which is more like Jareth than the Vata'sha, who look similar to D&D Drow, with dark skin and light hair). Alternatively, he could be a Human with arcane powers, in either Blue Rose or D&D. But he looks like an Elf to me.

Hoggle

Hoggle is a Dwarf who works for Jareth; one of his jobs is as a pest-controller in the garden. He's a coward. He has a spray that kills fairies, likes plastic, and has a (worthless) bag of charms that he values highly. He also has a kind of 'Portable Door' (which he only uses once, maybe only usable once, or perhaps once per day) and knows where to find rope. There may or may not be other Dwarves called Hogwart, Hedgewart, Heggle, Hoghead and Hogbrain. There are no Blue Rose Dwarves.

There are Fairies that bite (no pic of them on the blog where I found the rest of the photos). Hoggle has killed 60, he claims, but we don't know over what time period. He kills about 5 while Sarah is talking to him. A swarm of 10-60 is a possibility, I suppose. We do not know if they're truly intelligent. In D&D they could be something like AC9, Mv 90' (30') flying, hp1, save E1, Att 1 (bite), Dam d4, Ml 9 Al N, I would think. 

'Dennis', the Worm

There's a talking worm, that I decided is called Dennis (he isn't named it seems) who has a wife, drinks tea and knows the way to the Castle. He helps Sarah to identify what we might think of as 'secret doors'. On IMDB he is called "Worm".

Tilekeepers

There are tiny people (about 3" high?) that change the flagstones after Sarah has made marks on them. I have since discovered that these are called "Tilekeepers", but no-one has a credit as a 'Tilekeeper' on IMDB. They are perhaps related to Fairies (they seem to be about the same size) but do not have wings. They do seemingly have language and purpose however.

Goblins

There are Goblins - many and of different sorts, but they boil down to small and tall (mechanically these are probably many Goblins or even Kobolds, and a few Orcs or Hobgoblins, D&D terms. Blue Rose has no real equivalents to Goblins, just large Orcs, who are called Night People). Some Goblins have sticks with small bitey things attached to them. Two small Goblins are 'the Cleaners', who ride a kind of bicycle-powered boring machine. Others are the Goblin Guard, and come in Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery varieties. The Cavalry carry spears and ride two-legged lizards; the Artillery have cannons and machine-guns, and the cannons seem to fire tiny Goblins. Most Goblins are armoured - at least, the ones in the Labyrinth and City. There's also a giant-sized mechanical construct piloted by a Goblin. However, it's probably best to consider this in relation to its location.

Ludo with Sarah

There's Ludo, a kind of Horned Troll with the ability to call d100 rocks (in 13 hours he does it twice, perhaps he can do it 3 times a day).

Fireys

There are Fire Spirits or "Fireys" - there are five of these (No Appearing d6+2?). They may be some kind of weak fire-elemental. Pretty sure I can find some sort of analogue in both D&D and Blue Rose.

Sir Didymus

There is Sir Didymus, an anthropomorphic Fox-knight (other people think he's a dog, but I think he's a fox), who rides Ambrosius, an Old English Sheepdog. Sir Didymus is brave, but somewhat blinkered. Ambrosius is a bit of a coward. Though Blue Rose has rules for animals with psychic communication, it doesn't have rules for foxes that dress like 14th Century Landesknechts, talk as if they're human and hold weapons. In D&D, I might use the rules for Haflings (not as crazy as it sounds... honestly).

Wiseman and The Hat

There is a sage-type ("Wiseman"), with a talking bird hat ("The Hat"); the sage utters gnomic wisdom (or not), the bird-hat is sarcastic.

Trash-Lady

There is a kind of bag-lady ("Trash-Lady") who pushes memories as a distraction (which again waste time).

Then there are lots of guests at a ball. These appear to be human, but there's an outside chance they're Elves (or Vata) like Jareth. Again though, no pics at The Labyrinth blog.

There are also other sentient beings - the 'Helping Hands', the 'False Alarms', the door-knockers and the 'logic guards' who don't know how their answers work - but these seem to be tied to particular locales. Of course, those above may be too - perhaps the Fireys cannot be found outside the jungle, or the Wiseman outside the garden, but we don't really know. I've pretty much assumed that those with some obvious means of perambulation might move around, those who don't (or whose job keeps them in place like the four guards who either lie or tell the truth) do not and are more like features of the location.

Locations will be what I get onto in the next post, I should think.

Guardians of the World-tree... perhaps some progress

Some lore and other ancient history...

In the distant past there were only Elves. Some myths say that Eru created the Elves but they slept until Eru had made the stars; then the Elves awoke beside a lake. Some myths say that Corellon Larethian fought the demon Lolth and the Elves sprang from the drops of Corellon's blood shed in the fight (in one version, the Drow from Lolth's blood, the ancestors of the good Elves from Corellon's).

I don't know other Elven myths, but certainly in Azeroth there is (or was rather) a 'World Tree' that the Elves lived around. They're supposed to be the oldest race, and they have split into different kindreds, primarily the Night Elves and the Blood Elves (the Blood Elves, originally High Elves, were the ruling class of Elven society).

Whatever the version, the Elves are divided. In at least some versions, there are World Trees.

Malekith the King of the Dark Elves (Marvel) is certainly the inspiration for Malekith King of the Dark Elves (Warhammer). The Marvel Dark Elves also imply 'Light Elves', and obviously, these are all derived pretty squarely from nordo-germanic myths with the 'svartalfar' and 'liosalfar'. Why have I never realised Malekith of Marvel's Dark Elves are blue? This might explain those blue Citadel Dark Elves that used to pop up in the late 1980s. They weren't 'Drow' per se, they were Marvel Dark Elves not TSR Dark Elves.

Anyway, I've been painting Elves again. Maybe they'll see action in Warhammer or Kings of War someday soon. Maybe they won't in the end but hell I like painting Elves. And not those camo-clad guerrilla-fighters that GW have been pushing for the last 10 years or so. No, proper guards-of-the-Fairy-Queen type. They wear blue, and red, and white, and bright green, as well as cloaks of dappled green that hide them in the forests. Some of my Elves are Blood Elves, some will be various kinds of Dark Elves, some will be Night Elves and so on.

Some of my Elves

It's only about 10 years since I started on this idea of a united force of Elves. That's probably slow even by my standards!

World Tree Guardians have arrived...

This morning, a parcel arrived from Miniature Heroes, who carry the Reaper lines in the UK. In it was a small collection of minis for my Sundering Elf Quest of the One Tree.

I realised I'd made a mistake however. One of the minis, it turns out, was a filthy round-ear. I don't really know what to do about that. I looked at the tags - they said 'Elf, Human'. You can't see the ear on the photo. But it is there. The horror.

There she is - Finari the female Paladin, sculpted by Werner Klocke, one of my favourite sculptors and responsible for my favourite mini of all time, Jolie the Female Scribe. Finari is a very nice mini, of course, and it's always good to have more female minis for any game. But - not destined, as I'd hoped, to captain a unit of Elves after all. I shall have to find another use for her - possibly even as a companion for Jolie.







Next up is Lysette the wizard, who combines a magic staff and a huge sword - as only Elves can in D&D. The right sort of ears on this one to be sure.

 Not certain how to paint her yet - the fact she's called 'Lysette' makes me think of Krull of course. Can I give the Princess Lyssa treatment? Perhaps something like the shot from Krull is in order? On the other hand, that is more or less how I painted Jolie the Female Scribe - red hair and a kinda yellow-y dress. More thought needed here.

Aviriel Tellerion is next up. Avariel like long walks in the woods, communing with animals, and stabbing things with another impressive weapon. Not given any particular character class, Aviriel is obviously some kind of warrior. She has no staff - she doesn't even have a bow. Shocking.

Then there's Turanil.  No jokes about impressive weapons please. Turanil is listed as a Paladin. A well-armed and well-armoured warrior is what that means. He does look pretty impressive I think. Of all of them he's the one that looks most 'High Elf', I think.

After Turanil is Nienna, who is listed as a Female Ranger. I think she looks really cool. With her bow, sword and dagger, swirled in her great cloak, poised on a tree-stump, she looks ready for anything. I like the idea of painting her as a 'Shadow Elf'. I shall have to look into that.











Following Nienna is Arthrand Nightblade, like Nienna a Ranger, unlike Nienna a male. He too has a large sword, I'm presuming that is the 'Nightblade'.

Deladrin the Female Assassin is up next. Now, we don't have Elven Assassins where I come from. OK, we don't have Paladins and Rangers either, but we especially don't have Assassins. So, she has to be something else. She has a cloak like the Rangers, so perhaps she coul be included with them. Maybe she should be the Shadow Elf and Nienna should be something else.

Lastly, and obviously not least (rather the reverse), there is Shaeress, the Dark Elf Queen. I'll probably use her as a magic-user, I'd think. Or maybe she can be a Queen (or at least some kind of aristocratic leader). Not decided yet.













Much thinking to do, I think

Sundering Elf Quest of the World Tree or something

Ok, bear with me. This may turn out to be me having a mental breakdown, but...

I like Elves. OK, my Warhammer armies are 1-Orcs & Goblins and 2-Dwarfs (though I insist on spelling them Dwarves, because I'm a Tolkienist)... but I still have a few Elves knocking about, even though I'd be hard pushed to field a legal WHFB Wood Elf army with them.

I would also like the jury to take into consideration the fact that my first D&D character, in 1980, was an Elf. I've got history here.

Fast forward 32 years, and I'm trying to get my kids playing D&D, so I'm perusing the WotC website looking at images to make standees from (see this thread on the Lead Adventure site) and I come across the following picture (which is of Forgotten Realms Elves, (c) WotC, illustration by Steve Prescott):

... which shows a Drow, Wild Elf, Sun Elf, Wood Elf and Moon Elf.

There's also this picture:

...which I found on the Forgotten Realms wiki (though I'm pretty sure it's also from the D&D site originally): apart from the human on the extreme left, it also shows a Sun Elf, Wood Elf, Moon Elf, Drow (though this Drow's skin seems much lighter than the Drow in the previous picture), Wild Elf.

I know different D&D settings also have other Elven races - Shadow Elves in Mystara, for instance.

These got me thinking. How many sorts of Elves are there, in different settings?

I know about Tolkien's Elves - rather more than any sane person needs to probably.

WHFB has Dark Elves, High Elves, Wood Elves and the rather hazy Sea Elves. These Wood Elves would in general resemble the Wood Elves and Wild Elves in Forgotten Realms; the High Elves would be similar to the Sun and Moon Elves likewise. Sea Elves likewise would probably be similar to Sun and Moon Elves. But Dark Elves don't look like Drow - generally Dark Elves in Warhammer World are pale (though the illustration here -

- has some Dark Elves with a sickly zombie-like greenish cast to their skin). (image from Stuff of Legends, showing Marauder Dark Elves, (c) Marauder Miniatures, 1989).

However, the Dark Elf from Talisman (the Talisman Dungeon expansion, from 1987) has blue skin, and in that sense is more like the D&D Drow (image (c) Games Workshop 1987)

In the world of Azeroth (Warcraft) I think there are two sorts of Elves - Night Elves, with purplish skin, and the evil Blood Elves, with pale skin.

I don't really know how many other examples there may be. Possibly lots.

The point is, I'd like to put a force together that includes all of these Elven races, and any more I find out about. A sort of Elvish United Nations. My justification will be that in whichever great forest these Elves are now (Athel Loren, Canolbarth or wherever), they have come there from many different worlds, drawn by the Vision of the World Tree, a magic world-spanning ur-tree that calls suitable Elves to it; they can then travel between the different world where the World Tree exists, probably to combat threats against the World Tree itself.

Now this won't be fast, but hopefully it'll be cool. First job is to find a suitable box of minis...


All images are used without permission under fair use conventions.