Ward & Kuntz's Deities & Demi Gods, Yog Sothoth & Clark Ashton Smith's Poseidonis For Your Old School Campaigns

One of the things I've been doing is cracking my copy of Clark Ashton Smith's Poseidonis. What is Poseidonis?  

"Poseidonis is a collection of fantasy short stories by Clark Ashton Smith, edited by Lin Carter. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books as the fifty-ninth volume of its Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in July 1973. It was the fourth collection of Smith's works assembled by Carter for the series. The stories were originally published in various fantasy magazines in the 1930s and 1940s, notably Weird Tales.

The book collects several prose poems, poems and tales, including stories from the author's Poseidonis cycle, set on a remnant of the lost continent of Atlantis."
The original paperback collection from  Ballantine Adult Fantasy sells at a reasonable twelve to thirteen dollars on the internet. 



Once again I've had my eye on Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea as the main setting for using a version of Poseidonis. This would be a chain of  small islands & islets within Hyperborea where the ruins of  Poseidonis reach from the sea like the fingers of a drowning man. As far as cycles go this is one of the shorter his ones; 

Atlantis (1912)
Death of Malygris, The (1933)
Double Shadow, The (1933)
Last Incantation, The (1930)
Muse of Atlantis, The (1922)
Tolometh (1958)
Vintage from Atlantis, A (1933)
Voyage to Sfanomoe, A (1931)

Much of this was prompted by something I read  Jeffrey Talanian had said on social media," One of the things that separates Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea from other tabletop role-playing games (traditional and modern alike) is the setting of Hyperborea. The Hyperborea setting is where your campaign takes place!" This is very true & because the setting takes its inspirational ques from HP Lovecraft, Robert Howard, & Clark Ashton Smith among others there's a flexibility to be able to modify it into your own. Poseidonis was on its way into the ocean's depths but were there other reasons for its extinction? One of the possible reason's for its extinction level event that was suggested by DM Steve recently was the possibility that the priest mages of Poseidonis had truck with a particularly nasty avatar of Yog Sothoth . His suggestion was that this Outer God might have been the one depicted in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Deities & Demigods book by Robert Kuntz & James Ward.

This might have contributed to the complete destruction of the island nation & its attendant harbor kingdoms. Several reasons for this come to mind & its use for AS&SH is not without merit. Specifically the fact that AS&SH as a system is exceptionally friendly towards BECMI D&D & Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition.

The mage priests of Poseidonis  grew desperate to avert their fate & called upon the key & the gate of the mythos. They paid the terrible price with a sacrifice & the sanity shattering revelation proved too much for the fault lines of Poseidonis. Now you've got only cracked & cursed ruins remaining above the waters. The 'fog of time' after the departure of Hyperborea from Old Earth dragged the time lost island nations with it. Now they lay off the oceans of Hyperborea forgotten by everyone with the exceptions of half mad priests of the cults of Yog Sothoth. The occasional blind hermit mage or wizard who hears the muttering of the damned souls of the island nation & the song of the crabmen's queen below the waves. 



All rights the artwork & copyrights belong to Wizards of the Coast for Deities & Demigods, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea copyright & trademarks belong to North Wind Adventures. They are not responsible for the opinions & speculation on the writer's part. This blog post is not meant as a violation of the copyrights or trade marks of the respective holders its for entertainment purposes only.