The Curse From Beyond

I've managed to contain the infection using the bracer of Inragos and the Voorish Chant but I fear it is only a temporary solution.
 "from the notebooks of Dr. Eugene Kantorius"

Daughters of the Black Goat

Clad only in witchfire I have seen the daughters of the Black Goat dancing in hidden glades beneath the full moon! That very moon which is the eye of their Dark Mother! And the shapes that come from the woods to dance with them, things cast in a mold not of this world or of any world where sanity and light prevail!
 (Except from a sermon given by Rev. Alton Bowers at the Church of the Holy Light in Arkham, Massachusetts in 1906)

Shoggoth!

Worst toy idea ever.

The Black Book

In his search for ultimate knowledge did not the sorcerer Tellaborabi sign his name in the Black Book of Azathoth? And later, when his frightened acolytes broke down the door to his sanctum they found not an all knowing sage but instead a drooling madman who had clawed out his own eyes.

(from the confessions of Psylacheus the Heretic)

The Primal Giants

Far to the frozen north sailed At'amdra, and there he found an island where dwelt a race of  monstrous giants amid the ruins of a once great city. These savage giants were called the Ith'uuklim by the primitive people who lived on nearby islands and it is said long ago the monsters sought to conquer the young tribes of man. But Nodens had witnessed the vileness of the Ith'uuklim and sent a mighty earthquake to destroy their city, then he caused strange foul vapors to rise from the earth to rob them of intellect. Now the giants roamed the fallen city as animals devouring any living thing they might find and even preying on their own kind when food was scarce.

At'amdra considered a landing on the isle of the Ith'uuklim, for no doubt great treasures remained in the ruins. But wisely sailed on as the place had been cursed by the gods.

 (from the Lemurian Codex)

Innsmouth

 The rotten fish smell of Innsmouth no longer sickened him. A part of him loathed the town and it's vile inhabitants. That part of him, the human part, was weak and frightened, it begged him to run screaming into
the rain until the town was far behind.
    In the street below his open window a priest read from a scroll. The words were older than mankind and
not meant to be voiced by men but the words came easy to the priest. The flabby, drooling, lips spoke with
authority, rising above the din of the storm.
  "Pha'tgn Uig'liu Dagon"
  "Ia Ia Mg'nui CTHULHU"
  "Dagon yath'lei"
  "Ug'liu DAGON"
 They were coming up the stairs. Shambling, bleating, many crawled on limbs more suited to the slimy sea floor. The door opened. No, he would not run from Innsmouth, he would take Dagon's sacrament and reveal his true self, then he would live forever amid the terrible beauty of the Deep Ones.

The Saga of Huurgan, part 1

In time it came to Huurgan to leave the island of Co'crissus and take up again to the sea, for the wanderlust in his heart was far greater than his desire to remain as consort to the Queen Saajh, regardless of the comforts and pleasures of that position. He woke early one morning and left the Saajh dreaming in the royal bed chambers, then roused his crew and bid them to set sail as the sun rose.

Saajh awoke alone and went down to the docks in time to spy Huurgan's ship pulling from the harbor. A great anger rose in Saajh and she swore by the dark gods that her lover would not leave until she tired of him. With good reason was Saajh called the Witch Queen of Co'Crissus for she conjured a terrible astral demon that set to devouring Huurgan's crew.

Seeing that a ship with no crew is useless, Huurgan took up arms and fought the monster. But to no avail for his weapons passed without harm through the creature's vaporous form. In desperation Huurgan  turned and hurled his spear in a long arc across the bay, striking full into the ivory bosom of the Witch Queen. Saajh sank to the docks with a sigh as the last breath left her body and without the Witch Queen’s life force to sustain it, the ravenous demon faded away.

Huurgan's crew pulled mightily upon the oars and the ship raced to the open sea. But a great sorrow came upon Huurgan while he plied the tiller and pondered the death of Saajh;  for that spear had been a gift from a gladiatrix of Ukadd and it was a very fine spear indeed. (From The Lemurian Codex, Chapter XXXVII The Journeys of Huurgan)

The Scrolls of Druuna Cosaan

"And the great King Khossus looked into the glass from Leng, and therein beheld strange stars and further to strange worlds where life took shape only glimpsed in the nightmares of men. Thus did Nyarlathotep touch the mind of Khossus as he gazed upon the things beyond, and ruin came unto the land of Sohure."
(from the Scrolls of Druuna-Cosaan)

The Scroll of Kirem

The caravan had stopped for the night. One of the travelers  the sorcerer Abdul Alhazrad lounged on a fine rug, by the light of the full moon he studied the glyphs on some ancient scrolls obtained from a tomb in the crypts of Kirem. His brawny servant Achmed and the other travelers had already drifted into strange dreams induced by the Black Lotus petals that Alhazrad burnt during his evening meditations.

Alhazrad could read the ancient hyperborean language however he was not certain of the meaning of the words he chanted from the scroll. He suspected they were words of power for they seemed to  linger in the  air after being spoken. Perhaps the scroll could summon up spirits of  vast knowledge or some amusing imp from the netherworld. Alhazrad had no fear of what the words might call up, his  knowledge of the seal of Koth protected him from spiritual harm and  Achmed was well equipped to handle any physical dangers.

The chant ended, apparently with no effect. Suddenly Achmed lurched from spot where he lay dozing; clutching his stomach, he began screaming, bloody froth poured from his mouth. The man stood upright and Alhazrad stared with horror at the source of his agony;  monstrous taloned hands ripped open his belly from the inside and yellow eyes gazed out of the wound. With a final heave that tore Achmed apart, the demon stepped into the world of men through the gate the sorcerer had unknowingly created. Alhazrad sank to his knees before the gore covered demon and pleaded for his life. The demon  towered above Alhazrad, staring down at his groveling new master with blazing contempt, for he was bound into service to this human by words that neither he nor the sorcerer understood.

The Father of Tsotha Lanti

"I am a sorcerer, and older than men reckon, but I am human. As for Tsotha—men say that a dancing­-girl of Shadizar slept too near the pre-human ruins on Dagoth Hill and woke in the grip of a black demon; from that unholy union was spawned an accursed hybrid men call Tsotha-Lanti"
Robert E. Howard, "The Scarlet Citadel" 1933

Arkham Expedition

Arkham Massachusett's Miskatonic University launched their third and final Antarctic Expedition in 1937. The project was organized to search for traces of a pre-human civilization, long thought to be centered in the frozen continent according to certain passages of the fabled Necronomicon and Pnakotic Manuscripts. The expedition was funded by a generous grant from the Rothwell Institute for Theosophical Studies and while most of the participating scientists considered the mission to be complete quackery the opportunity to explore the antarctic region was impossible to pass up.

Contact with the group was lost almost immediately, a hastily organized rescue party recovered a few pieces of the expedition's equipment at the base camp, but no bodies were ever found and adding to the mystery; certain notes, photographs, and specimens were withheld from the general public. After a lengthy court battle with the Rothwell Institute over the ownership of the materials, these items were ordered sealed in the vault at Miskatonic for 100 years. The artifacts of the lost expedition remain the subject of much speculation and rumor.

 

Sorcerer Kings of Lemuria

In those last days of Lemuria sorcerers were given great power by the Old Ones who dwell in the primal dark, and the sorcerers ruled over men as though they themselves were gods. Idols of Great Cthulhu, Sub-Niggurath, and Yig were placed in the once sacred temples of the Elder Gods, even the statue of great Nodens was defiled and men swore that the elder gods of earth had lost their power. The land became cursed and all manner of evil was indulged.

 

 

 

    But in far Kadath, great Nodens watched and waited.
    In time the stars wheeled in their eternal course and the Old Ones slept, in their dreams seeking out other worlds to corrupt. Great Nodens came down from Kadath to the land of Lemuria and the people cried out praises to him. But Nodens did not listen, he went to the high peak of Koltheg-Kla and there he did awaken the fire worm that is the child of Cthugha, and the fire worm devoured the foundations of the land of Lemuria that it would sink beneath the boiling seas.
   All the tribes of Lemuria were destroyed but a few of the Sorcerers were gifted with the sight of things future and past, knowing what was to come they prepared spells and philtres to preserve their bodies and containers for the preservation of their dark souls. For in time the stars would wheel again and even great Nodens would become not even a memory and the Old Ones stir from their dreaming, then would the sorcerers rise and the tribes of man bow down to them again.
(from the Scrolls of Vecra Tutthoon)

Daughter of Set

 

 

 

 

 

"But he could see only the god-like face, the finely molded head which swayed curiously from side to side. The full lips opened and spoke a single word, in a rich vibrant tone that was like the golden chimes that ring in the jungle-lost temples of Khitai. It was an unknown tongue, forgotten before the kingdoms of man arose, but Conan knew that it meant, “Come!”

(Robert E. Howard, The God in the Bowl)

The Rites of Shub Niggurath

By no means is the worship of the outer gods a vague myth of mankind's primitive past. It is said that the blasphemous Tch-Tcho people still sacrifice to Shub-Niggurath, she who is called the Dark Mother of a Thousand Young, and others serve the Dark Mother although they may call her by different names and practice their foulest rites in secret. The talismans of the Dark Mother are still found in places where the woods are dark even by day and strange cries are heard in the night.
(from a lecture given by Rev. Alton Bowers at the Church of the Holy Light in Arkham, Massachusetts in 1903)

      

The Black Lotus Rituals

   Abdul Alhazrad was pleased with the spot he had chosen to perform the Black Lotus Ritual. It was a one room hut on the edge of the wastelands. Once the home of a madman who wandered the hills talking to shadows and oddly formed rocks, that hermit had disappeared one night during a sandstorm and the place had been shunned since. The hut had a single window facing south and that too was a good omen; for as a boy Alhazrad had glimpsed an ice bound mountain in the grip a fever dream and had known it was in the southern most reaches of earth. Perhaps the visions that the Black Lotus granted would allow him to see that mountain again or even the things that slumbered beneath it.

 

    Alhazrad seated himself in the midst of a complex series of circles and mystic symbols drawn in white chalk on the floor. He chanted the Dho-Na formulae as he lit the brazier. The dried Black Lotus began to smolder and lazily the blue smoke rose, tendrils coiling and twisting like serpents. As the smoke drew near his face, Alhazrad inhaled deeply.

 

   The lotus fumes struck his brain like thunder, he had brief but terrible sensation of falling down an endless tunnel, then he was standing, staring at his still chanting body, Alhazrad's astral form had been freed from the cage of flesh. He turned toward the window and could see countless paths leading from it. Alhazrad stepped through and began to travel.

 

   He flew through nearer astral realms and beheld spirits of the dead, some lost in  false bliss and others lost in equally false torment. Those realms could not hold him and he probed beyond the nearer realms and glimpsed the maelstrom of time itself. Lean and hungry Hounds of Tindalos stalked the edge of the maelstrom, he spoke to those things, telling them the time and place to slay his earthly enemies. That vague scent was enough for the tindalosi, they leaped into the vortex to find their prey.

    Alhazrad guided his spirit sideways into the lands of dream. There he marveled at great shantaks on the wing and was briefly entertained by the antics of playful zoogs. Then he watched as the zoogs devoured a lone traveler and his amusement became revulsion.

    He left the dreamlands and returned to the plane of earth. He sent his spirit to the very bottom of the sea where he stood with Mother Hydra and her daughters before the sunken tomb of Great Cthulhu. He felt a call from the sepulchre and he entered within, his spirit passing through the stone like mist. There he beheld the corpse of Great Cthulhu, a mountain of alien flesh that was dead but still dreaming. That dreaming essence of Cthulhu flowed out to touch him and something attached itself to Alhazrad, pain ripped through both his astral and corporeal forms.

     The agony shattered the spell and sent the sorcerer's soul crashing back to his body. Alhazrad  came to his senses with the morning light, the black lotus had long since burnt out, the sigils and diagrams on the floor were smudged from the convulsions that had wracked his body through the night. But something had changed in Alhazrad, as though a veil had been lifted from his eyes, he perceived certain angles were corridors leading to other worlds where other things gazed hatefully upon mankind. The were also changes in his physical form, but Alhazrad decided it would be best to hide those from curious eyes and bound himself with rags as though he were a leper. For those new parts of himself fought for control and they were so very hungry.

 

The Dark Mother

     The  shrieking apes whose children would some day be called men clambered down from trees and stood upright on two trembling legs, they began to kill with clubs and carried burning embers to make fire.  Their primitive intelligence grew and among them one began to dream, not of mating or hunting, but of a beautiful female voice that spoke from beyond the stars. That gentle and wise voice named herself as Shub-Niggurath, the Mother of Darkness.
     The Dreamer had only simple language, but he understood the voice of Shub-Niggurath and she told told him many things. He found an ancient oak and carved a symbol on it, exactly at the time and in the proportions she had instructed. In a season many plants that were good to eat grew around the tree and the tribe ceased roaming to dwell there. The voice taught him of plants that would heal the sick so that his people would prosper.  The voice of Shub-Niggurath would sing to the Dreamer and he in turn taught the tribe to sing the Dark Mother's praises as they gathered around the mighty oak. For a time it was perfect, there was much food and peace, the tribe grew large and its children strong. The tribe held the Dreamer in high esteem and his word became first in all things.
   Then one night near the time of the falling leaves, Shub-Niggurath spoke to the Dreamer with a voice harsh and fearsome. The Dreamer awoke in a fit of terror and he told the tribe of the Dark Mother's desire; that they should capture people of another tribe, as many as were the fingers of both hands and bring them to the oak. Half were to be bled dry on the roots of the tree in the dark of the moon and praises sung to the Mother of Darkness. The other half were to be given to the terrible firstborn of Shub-Niggurath, who would come to receive this tribute of flesh. It was done, the Dreamer led his tribe to war for the pleasure of his goddess and she smiled upon him as he performed the grisly rituals.

  With the blessings of Shub-Niggurath the dreamer lived far beyond the normal span of a man and spawned many children, some with strange aspects and even stranger appetites. When at last the Dreamer died they buried his body at the foot of the great oak so his bones would be tangled in the bloodstained roots of the ever growing tree.
 The tribe dwelt for countless years at the great oak and in time they evolved into true men and built a stone temple around the ancient tree and around that temple sprang up the first great city of man on earth, which was called Gron-Hia in that old tongue.

 Even to this day the oak still stands in the crumbled ruins of the temple and the Prophets of Pnom claim that when the comet Oucarobius stains the sky the Dreamer can be heard singing to his dark goddess. Although some would say it is just the echoing shrieks of apes from the distant forest.

The Vile One

"And in those places where men delight in vice is the presence of Y'Golonac known, and he draws to him those most wicked, that they may be devoured by him, their flesh made sweeter by their sins."
 from the The Hagan Apocrypha

Spawn of the Windwalker

 
I am the howling wind of fear.
I am the frost that brings starvation.
Who calls me with the words older than mankind?
Ia IT-AH-Qwa
Ia Shatukk ng'liu
Ia Ki-Nah-uk
Ia IT-AH-Qwa
Who calls me with an offering of flesh?
I am the Wind-Walker.
The frozen dead follow in my footsteps. They come to devour the living.

(Inscription from a menhir discovered on Ellesmere Island, translated from the Aklo by Professor Ben Crawford)

Necronomicon pages referencing human sacrifices made to the Spawn of the Windwalker by primitive tribes

Windwalker cult artifact in Miskatonic collection

The Temple of the Worm

"Out of the temple the monstrous dweller in the darkness had come, and I, who had expected a horror yet cast in some terrestrial mould, looked on the spawn of nightmare. From what subterranean hell it crawled in the long ago I know not, nor what black age it represented. But it was not a beast, as humanity knows beasts. I call it a worm for lack of a better term. There is no earthly language that has a name for it."
 The Valley of the Worm by Robert E. Howard

The Arkham Witch Box

In the spring of 1692 a woman named Keziah Mason was tried for witchcraft in Arkham, Massachusetts. The old woman was accused of being in league with the devil and many strange artifacts were found in her home and submitted as proof of her crime. Mason confessed freely to witchcraft and declared the various artifacts to be gifts from her infernal mentor, a being she referred to as "Nyarlathotep" or "The Dark Man".
 Several witnesses swore to have seen corpses walking in the forests near Mason's home and when questioned about this necromancy Mason claimed the Dark Man had given her a magical formulae that allowed her to trap the souls of dead men into a box and raise their rotting corpses to be her servants. The transcript of her trial even states that audible moans, wails, and hoarse whispers were heard to issue from the witch box.
Based on the overwhelming evidence and Mason's own confession, she was convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death. However the convicted woman somehow escaped on the eve of her execution, that same night the witch box and her other possessions also disappeared from a locked room in the local church.
 The story might have ended there had not the witch box been recovered in 1939 during the demolition of a long abandoned farmhouse near Arkham. The item was found in the cellar of the old house near a pit containing the remains of twenty four human beings, some of these cadavers were in a skeletal state and dressed in 17th century clothing while others appeared to be much more recent. The disinterred corpses were assumed to be the work of a grave robbing cult, and since none of the remains could be identified the case was quickly closed by the local authorities and the bodies reburied. The witch box was placed in the care of Miskatonic University and has remained there since.