'Barbarism is the natural state of mankind,' the borderer said, still staring somberly at the Cimmerian. 'Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph.'

-Robert E. Howard
Beyond The Black River

Corrupt Cliffs

Corrupt Cliffs
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Showing posts with label Lovecraft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lovecraft. Show all posts

Friday, February 1, 2019

Friday's Forgotten Fiends: Child of Nethuns.

Welcome back to another installment of Friday's Forgotten Fiends! Custom monsters for your RPG table feature stat blocks for Conan 2d20 and Dungeons and Dragons 5e as well VTT tokens!

The torch light revealed the large vaulted chamber as it slowly slid across the ancient stone. The chamber was buried deep in the mountains, part of an ancient fortress, or so the stories went. The trio of explorers, Dagen, Epas and Volmastes, entered through a small doorway set in the western wall, searching for gold and jewels. Light danced along the walls of this room amplified by the large natural pool of water that sat at its center. Slowly as the torchlight was cast across the room small objects near the pool became visible. Volmastes approached the pool and stooped to investigate and found small candles and bits of parchments. The water rippled as if by wind or a bubble being released far below. The torch, brought forward by the other two, did nothing to illuminate the depths of the inky pool.

Suddenly the trio was flung back from the pool as....SOMETHING...erupted from the depths. A mass of tentacles, large and small, studded with claws writhed in the air, pausing momentarily before striking at the awe stricken party. Living ropes of flesh and talons raked at the three adventurers, slicing and grabbing them, one slid around Volmastes and pulled him, struggling, towards the pool. Dagen drawing steel and striking with the skill of a Master of Iado, felt her blade sink in and through the large tentacle, freeing her friend. The remains of the tentacle fell heavily to the cold stone floor, dark ichor leaking everywhere. Epas turned towards Dagen in time to see what was left of the vanquished tentacle erupt into smaller versions of itself, it struck and slashed and wrapped around her with the fierce speed and strength of a jungle cat....

These creatures are never seen fully. Only their appendages that erupt from a body of water to attack and rend the flesh of adventurers. These creatures are often the result of dark magic and pacts between sorcerers and the forgotten gods of the deep, with especially strong links to the worship of Dagon.

They attacked from a fixed body of water, able to move freely within that water and look like a black/red group of triangular shaped tentacles with talons or teeth lining the underside. Smaller tentacles are sound with a similar claw at each end used to penetrate hard prey.

Although the beast is associated with Dagon, I chose to name it a child of Nethuns, a personal bastardization of the god, "Neptune". Players may get it with some thought if you even reveal the name, but it won't be an obvious reveal as to the origins and what the beast represents.

As always below you will find stats for 2d20 and D&D5e for both major and minor tentacles of this horrific beast.

Conan 2d20


D&D 5e

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Friday, January 11, 2019

Friday's Forgotten Fiends: The Gibbering Darkness

Today I want to revisit a creature I came up awhile ago. The concept of this thing was a creature that would assail PCs in Conan 2d20 and cause a wound to a Character. Why would you do such a thing? Sometimes drama and tension can be increased when the PCs feel threatened and there are times when they simply don't in Conan because of how competent that they can be. A mob of these attacking in the deep ruins will generally use it's point of doom to attack first and most likely injure someone before being vanquished. I wouldn't recommend using something like this all the time, but everything in your toolbox has it's place.

The Gibbering Darkness


In the deep ruins of time immemorial there are places, rifts to some black place, where darkness seeps into our world as formless shapes, seeking the life energy of our existence like a wild predator seeks its prey.

The Gibbering Darkness is darkness made manifest, shifting shadows on the wall. Dark places in the corner of your eye. As easily as the dark is vanquished these creatures can be returned from which they came. Do not forget that like the darkness these hide things that are both physically and mentally deadly.

Many an naive adventurer has been reduced to lifeless husk, or worse a mindless husk, as unsuspecting they walked into a forgotten place and were assaulted by the dark mindless gibbering of these things.


If you liked this article then don't forget to subscribe to get the next exciting installment on pulp gaming both Sci-Fi and Fantasy!

If you have questions or comments don't forget to hit me up on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube or Instagram!
If you need to check out any of these great games stop on by DriveThruRPG and pick something up through my affiliate link to help support the blog!

Till next time, don't forget to Keep it Weird!

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Back to the Pulps. Clark Ashton Smith.

Yesterday, August 14, is a day that marks the anniversary of the passing of Clark Ashton Smith. Smith became known to me through reading Robert E Howard. CAS is often spoken in the same sentences that name Robert E Howard and Howard Phillips Lovecraft. He was a common contributor to Weird Tales at the same time as the other two, often being referred to as part of a trio of weird. Like Howard he was a member of what has come to be known as Lovecraft's literary circle.

If you haven't read any Clark Ashton Smith I highly recommend you pick up some of his work and get to know him a little. To help you with that I found a website containing a fairly large repository of his writing, "The Eldritch Dark, The Sanctum of Clark Ashton Smith" and I am going to link some of my favorites below for you to check out.

Here we have five stories to read and a website full of many many more. I myself have only read a small portion of this author's work but you should give him a shot if you haven't. You will be rewarded with a myriad of strange and fantastic worlds the likes of which you have not seen before.