References, Allusions and Other Trivia

The world of Cardhuntria is rich in stories. Those with a keen eye can often discover the legacy of other eras, people who are only known from myths passed from one generation to the other, as they have been for centuries beyond memory.

I am not one of such people with a keen eye. Despite that, however, I managed to collect a few. Feel free to add more if you wish. For now they're in a more or less random order, but I guess they could be organised if enough are collected. At the moment I'm not even sure how much people are even interested in these, so I just thought I'd put it up here. Maybe someone is.

There are a few I'm not even sure about, to be honest, but they seem suspicious. Either way, I'm pretty sure at least half of these are either wrong or so obvious that no one would even bother writing them down. Nevertheless I sometimes enjoy similar collections, so here goes.

Also keep in mind that there might be some mild spoilers in the thread, so proceed with caution. I doubt they're going to surprise anyone, though.

Forest Spiders: If you check their names, they include Crazy Cob, Lazy Lob and Attercop. All three are names that occur in Bilbo's little rhyme to distract the giant spiders of Mirkwood.
Umber Bulks: In Dungeons and Dragons, Umber Hulks are giant insect-like... things that can confuse creatures.
Storges: Stirges are blood-sucking parasites. Also from DnD.
Backbiting Strike: In Baldur's Gate II, there's a cursed spear called Backbiter that, along with dealing normal damage to enemies, delivers three points of damage to its wielder with each attack. This is one of the less certain ones, but since both the names and even the amount of self-damage match, I'd say there's a good chance.
Luke's Iron Hand: Luke Skywalker, who can move objects from a distance using the Force, gets his hand cut off and replaced by an artificial (though definitely not iron-looking) hand.
The White Star: Multiple ones, all in one! First of all, according to the text, the kobolds believe that the White Star is an incarnation (or something) of a kobold demigod, which strikes me as eeriely similar to the giant crystal the kobolds worship in Irenicus's dungeon in Baldur's Gate II. Furthermore, at the end of the adventure the party acquires the White Star, where its beauty is described with the following words: You weep at its beauty and cry that it shines like silver in a firelight, like water in the sun, like snow under the stars, like rain upon the Moon! - the exact same way the Arkenstone is described in The Hobbit.
Doom: I think I've seen a few games use the same effect under the same name. Personally I think it comes from Warcraft III, where it was a powerful spell that had a similar effect (target dies after a set amount of time). In that game it can't even be removed in any way, if I remember correctly. Though in strategy games units are generally more expendable. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, though!
Goblin Shredder: It could be a coincidence for all I know, but Warcraft III also features Goblin Shredders. Though there they're large machines mainly designed to chop wood, so there isn't a lot of similarity there other than the name.
Light Brigade: The name of the first battle in Tree Forts of the Goblin King would strike most people unusual, I think. At least I think. What about Lord Tennyson's poem The Charge of the Light Brigade? Is it a coincidence that the otherwise out-of-place Sparklers appear on that single battle with their electrical attacks? I'm not sure it is.

 

The first three Kobold Spearmen are named Zott, Fokk, and Pikk, which I expect is a reference to an alien race from Star Control 2/The Ur-Quan Masters:
http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Zoq-Fot-Pik

 

Mauve Manticore: White Dwarf magazine was a magazine for role-playing games, which may be what Mauve Manticore is alluding to. Also, the fictitious editor of Mauve Manticores, Mary Myrax, could be a reference to Gary Gygax, who co-created Dungeons and Dragons.

Legendary Treasures: Orc Painting is a reference to Mona Lisa, Portrait Of Countess Jovana is a reference to The Scream.

Mind Flensers: A reference to Mind Flayers from DnD. Both look similar to each other as well.

Rust Creatures: A reference to Rust Monsters from DnD. Both look similar to each other as well.

Zombies: One of the zombies in Card Hunter is named Zomboni, which is a zombie in Plants vs Zombies.

 

Greyworm Mace : in A Game of Thrones (and in A Song of Ice and Fire), Grey Worm is an unsullied (slave warrior) sworn to Daenerys Targaryen.
Black Pearl (treasure) : is the name of a pirate ship in Pirates of the Carribean and multiple other pirate stories AFAIK.
Mysterious Idol (treasure) : clearly represents Cthulhu, a fictional deity invented by H.P.Lovecraft.
Scourge of the Overmind : 2 Starcraft Zerg references in a single name.

Spoiler: One Piece Spoiler

Sabo's Flamespit Staff : Luffy's kin in One Piece, he gains the power of the Mera Mera no Mi (power over fire).

Zod's Vile Spaceplate : might refer to Zod in the Superman universe, an antagonist who comes from the same planet as Superman.

 

The Keep on the Borderlands is an early D&D module.

The campaign player home is named after it (Keep on the hinterlands)

Also, Cuthbert's Costume may come from Saint Cuthbert, a God in the Greyhawk campaing setting
From the same setting "Raid on Ommlet" refers to The Village of Hommlet

 

Rumor has it The Burninator finds demonic prestige if enough Fire Sprites are summoned near the same spot...
(One's named Drogtor. If you've never heard of Trogdor, go look up Homestarrunner.com right now, and after dillying around some, check out the Strong Bad e-mail named "Dragon.")

Edible's flavor text:

I'm prrreeetty sure that quote comes directly from Roald Dahl's classic novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (co-starring Willy Wonka the eccentric chocolatier of course, heheheh).

Fun topic! $:^ ]

 

I could have sworn at some point along the line I saw a reference to Ming the Merciless (Flash Gordon), but now I don't remember where.

 

Nice topic! Some quick ones.

Temple of Terror: Monkeys are named Zaius, Cornelius, Zira, Caesar... All character from the Planet of the Apes series.
Eye Of Wicna, Hand Of Wicna: References to the Eye & Hand of Vecna from D&D (Greyhawk).
Pendant Of Artax: Could be a reference to Artax, Atreyu's horse in The Neverending Story by Michael Ende (I highly recommend reading the book).
Barnum's Burning Bauble, Barnum's Staff: Reference to the hystorical Barnum Circus.
Cushioning Armor: Looks similar to Star Trek's uniforms, ironically in the original series wearing red was basically a death sentence.
Sahagun's Sword: A bit of a stretch, but Sahuagin are humanoid water monsters in D&D.

 

Intereresting topic!

Lord Stafford's Treasure, Lord Batford's Manor: References to a mission from the Thief series called "Lord Bafford's Manor".
Cyber Priest, Cyber Wizard, Cyber Warrior: Marie-France, Case and Molly are named after characters from William Gibson's Neuromancer.
Aliens & Mutants, Darius, EttSC: The Mutants in EttSC bear a great resemblance to those in System Shock , which some of the CH devs also worked on. Darius is also similar to the AI SHODAN from the same series. The expansion in general as well as the gameplay with unreliable high-tech weapons is also a reference to the D&D module Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.
Black Plume Mountain: Reference to the White Plume Mountain module from D&D.
McKay's Energy Cube: Reference to Leonard McCoy, a character from Star Trek.

 

Thanks, all of you! I didn't expect so many to pop up, to be honest.
I forgot to mention Mysterious Idol. It's worth noting that its pose is strikingly similar to how Lovecraft described the statuette of Cthulhu in The Call of Cthulhu, too.

But if we're already here, some more.

Scorching Rays: An actually rather potent spell in DnD for its level (at least in the fifth edition). The caster shoots three rays of fire at three targets (and may target one creature multiple times). Really good stuff, actually.
Lumbrezz the Mad: Yet another reference to Baldur's Gate II. In the expansion, Throne of Bhaal, the optional dungeon Watcher's Keep has an entire level dedicated to a poor soul trapped in some machine that does odd things. It's usually referred as the Machine of Lum the Mad. I'm not really going to mention more spoilers because I played it a long time ago and because, well, spoilers.

 

A couple more, found while tinkering with warriors.

Ettin's Club: Ettins are evil giants in D&D, the name seems to be taken from english folklore.
Bolg's Big Iron Plate: Bolg leads the orcs army in The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. Also appears in those godawful movies.
Terminator Mask: This one is obvious. "Come with me if you want to live!"
Iron Crown: Probably a coincidence, as I think Iron Crowns appear in tons of fantasy settings... but this is a real artifact name! The Corona Ferrea is actually kept in the Cathedral of Monza (Italy), dating back to the Lombard Kingdom in the Middle Ages. Surely worth more than a 1000 gold.

 

Vankenstein's Staff, Vankenstein's Machine: obviously Frankenstein.

 

There's an old Halfling autobiography titled There and Back Again -- or The Hobbit -- which features Smaug, a powerful, notorious, fire-breathing dragon. Cardhuntria features Smoag's Bucket Of Pitch, a level 18 , legendary, fire-globbing arcane item. Despite there being no Flame Spitting going on, is this coincidence? Maaaaaaaaaybe. $:^ }

 

In System Shock 2, XERXES is an AI reprogrammed to spread the infection of The Many (the mutants) to uninfected humans. IRL Xerxes 1 was the fourth king of the First Persian Empire. He succeeded his father, Darius, third king of the First Persian Empire.

 

Tlaloc's Stormplate: Tlaloc was the Aztec god of rain.

The Elder Mind: An elder brain is the final stage of the mind flayer life cycle, which explains why the Elder Mind is the boss of the Mind Flensers.

 

Ettin's Club: Some additional information. Ettins are, as Rohndil said, giants in DnD. They also have two heads (which leads to interesting consequences about them being inherently ambidextrous and other things). Now who else is enormous and has two heads?
Cooling Laser: Maybe a little different from most others, but I'm almost certain this card is an allusion to laser cooling. It's a method that uses lasers for cooling objects (who would've thought), but more interestingly, it's able to cool things (so far usually only tiny objects) down to microkelvins, which is pretty impressive. Here's some more information for those interested. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_cooling

 

Kelvin's Chunk Of Ice: Kelvin is a unit of measurement for temperature. Ice is cold. You get the idea.

Korenchkin's Tactical Tunic: Anatoly Korenchkin was the TriOptimum Corporation's CEO in charge of the Von Braun, in the game System Shock 2.

Richie's Frigid Laser: Willard Richie, another character from System Shock.

 

One I completely forgot, even though it always felt rather obvious to me.

Taz Boots: Taz is a character from the Looney Tunes cartoons, a tasmanian devil who often moves around by just spinning (which often turns out badly for everything in his path).

 

Speaking of Kelvin, @Gingrich Yurr, one of the Frost Sprites (see Citrine Demon Portal, such as the Entrance battle,) is named Kelvin. *gasp!* Do we obtain a Chunk of Ice from a demonic sprite?! I mean, I suppose CH's demons could instead just have a flair for naming after human stuff... $F^ J ...oh ho! Actually! The aftermath of said battle raises our suspicions about humans helping demon portals. Hmmmm. $;^ J (The names Zero, Cube, and Popsic are cute, too, heheh.)

Speaking of Citrine Demon Portal, the Sepulchre (battle 2) shows us some Lightning Sprites. Volt and Electron, mmhm, mmhm, but Tesla? $E^ b He was quite the competition for Thomas Edison concerning electricty; the way I understand it, we're still going back to his methods at times to improve our own technology. I've barely looked into his history, though. Fascinating stuff nevertheless.

(I suppose I could mention Ignatius the Fire Sprite and Conflag the Fire Fiend while I'm here.)

(I just know I've seen an actual Trogdor. Maybe Garnet Demon Portal. Not in Citrine. Dagron Tracker on the move!)